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: