KNOT another wader post

I thought I'd join the bandwagon of having a slight pun in the post title - I caught up with the Knot on Black Hole Marsh this evening. A fairly scarce bird on patch; this was only my fourth. Here's a couple of snaps:

Better LITTLE STINT & CURLEW SAND pics

Black Hole Marsh was a bit disappointing this morning! I popped down for a quick look around in the rain and the only birds of interest on BHM were 3 Wood Sands and 4 Ruff... Hopefully the birds were out on the estuary instead; it was low tide at the time. Here's a few more pics from yesterday:

CURLEW SANDPIPERS join in the party

A quick morning visit to Black Hole Marsh yielded mixed results. There were still 18 Wood Sands (22 later on) present, but also plenty of rain around. Later on, texts from Ian Mc and Bun prompted an afternoon visit as 2 Curlew Sandpipers had dropped in. Here's a pic (more to come tomorrow - my bed is calling me at the moment)!

INCREDIBLE number of WOOD SANDS at Black Hole Marsh

I was already on the way out to check Black Hole Marsh, but a text from Ian Mc with the words '27 Wood Sands' made me pick up the pace! This number then became 29, 31, 33 and finally 34. This was a number counted three times and by two people, but it could be even more than this as not all areas of the marsh are visible from Island Hide. Other birds of interest includes Little Stint, Greenshank and 8 Ruff. Here's a pic of a Wood Sandpiper from last night, taken when there were only 3 birds present!

YELLOW-LEGGED GULL posing for the camera

An afternoon text from Tim Wright had me rushing down to Tower Hide to see a juv > 1st winter (moulting) YLG. It's only the second one I've seen on patch so it was nice to get some pics! This is the best of them...

LITTLE STINT drops in at Black Hole Marsh

I had a good look for anything new at Black Hole Marsh this morning. Although initially it was all as per normal, I saw a Little Stint fly in with a Dunlin, and then they landed on BHM. Result! This is the 2nd Little Stint of the Autumn so far. A Greenshank also posed nicely for the camera:

The Little Stint remained fairly distant for the next 2 hours; I'm off out soon for another try...

SEDGE WARBLER and a Spider

Well today was another grotty day but I popped down to Black Hole Marsh in case anything new had arrived. There were a few more Ringed Plovers here today with at least 10 birds, but nothing of real interest - both Ruff and Wood Sandpiper numbers have dropped with only 4 and 1 respectively. A Sedge Warbler did the decent thing and posed in front of Island Hide; I was thankful of this opportunity as the weather was not conducive of taking nice wader pics! A spider also kept me occupied, although the web wasn't all that aesthetically pleasing.

BLACK TAILED GODWIT posing for the camera

Today has disappeared so just a quick post from me. I went to Black Hole Marsh a couple of times during the rainy day but nothing new (of interest) had arrived. Here's some pics of Black Tailed Godwit from the previous evening:

RUFF pics from Black Hole Marsh

One of 9 Ruff present last evening showed closely allowing some nice pics to be taken; quite obliging of it really. Here're a few of the snaps:

WHITE WINGED BLACK TERN - photo series (feeding)

Here's a few more pics of the Exminster Marshes WWBT which was present 14th - 16th.

 

WOOD SANDPIPERS with stunning reflections

There's a bit of a theme going with the photos I'm posting! The calm mornings and evenings are giving good opportunities to take photos of birds with lovely reflections. These two Wood Sands weren't particularly close but I like the way the shot came out none-the-less. There have been two Wood Sands around the Axe Estuary lately, and I found another this evening making three. Will the number increase further..?

WHITE WINGED BLACK TERN at Exminster Marshes

The WWBT was very difficult to photograph! It would pass by every 30 mins or so and you'd get a 3 - 5 second gap to try and get a pic. It's a good challenge! More to come but there's these for now:

BAIRD'S Sandpiper Post #2 (nice pics...)

Well I said in my last post that I was going to put up some more pics, so here they are! The bird remained distant for the first 6 hours or so, but then it flew in close; these photos were taken at dusk (20:35 ish). The views were astounding with the bird only about 20ft away!
All of these reflections are completely natural and photos are unedited (with the exception of colour saturation and noise adjustments).

BAIRD'S Sandpiper on Black Hole Marsh

Just a quick post to show a couple of pics; there will be more soon. Lovely bird and another great species for Black Hole Marsh!

Black Hole Marsh gets exciting!

Wednesday saw a great increase in numbers of waders on the reserve. Afternoon Ringed Plover number was 4, but there were at least 21 there by Sunset. Lots of pics to come (and I'll soon have time to do it due to redundancy). I also found a Ruff today; this is the first patch Ruff of the Autumn.

Greenshank

Turnstone