Stunning Spotted Redshank

Having seen some excellent pics of the rather smart Spotted Redshank at Goosemoor from Steph Murphy and Jo King I thought I'd pop over to see it yesterday morning (17th). I was lucky with cloud cover as it would have been side-lit without it; not what you want with a dark coloured bird.

The patch had a fall this morning with Ian Mc finding some good birds on Beer Head; he had a female Pied Flycatcher and 5 Redstarts (3m, 2f) amongst others. It was a while before I could get up there for a look around so I thought some of the birds may have moved through by the time I had cleared my work. It was worth a look around anyway and I caught up with 3 Redstarts (1m, 2f), 3 Wheatear and 30+ Willow Warblers although there would likely have been many more of the latter in the bushes at the base of the cliffs as there was a lot of activity down there. I didn't manage to find the Pied Flycatcher in the area it was showing earlier on in the day but did hear a Grasshopper Warbler reeling. Heat haze and distance made taking good pics impossible but it was worth taking a couple snaps of a male Redstart anyway:

An evening visit to Black Hole Marsh yielded 1 LRP (briefly), 5 Dunlin, 1 Common Sand and 1 Whimbrel. 7 Cattle Egret flew over Axmouth with 6 in one group initially then a single with a Little Egret about 10 mins later.