Saturday 1 October 2011

East Yorkshire Waders

I had quite a stroke of luck today-firstly I went to Patrington Haven and managed to get 20 minutes on the waders before the lagoon flooded and it just so happened that a curlew sandpiper chose to walk by me within 20 feet.
There were quite a few other waders on the lagoon including bar tailed godwit, grey plover, redshank and ringed plover. The only other bird of note was a merlin.
I had a quick ride out to Spurn after Pat haven, but a quick look on canal scrape and a chat with some other birders confirmed that there was little of note around.
I then went up to Hornsea Mere in the hope of seeing the pectoral sandpiper. At first there was no sign despite quite a few birders on site, then it appeared out of nowhere as 2 other birders and i watched it circle above us before flying off towards the south side. After a while it was re-located on the spit next to swan island. the only other bird of note was the odd little gull mixing with the black headed gulls.
One of the locals had arranged for the guy who owns the motor boat to take us towards swan island and within 10 minutes we were watching the pec and a rough at very close range. It was quite skittish and didn't hang around, but did stay long enough to get some cracking views.
we went further in search of a med gull which flew north and then we saw what at first we thought was a little egret but after some scrutiny the bird revealed itself as a great white egret.
Cracking bird to end a cracking morning.











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