So Whats New?

In an attempt to make these posts more 'interesting' I decided not to post everyday. Otherwise it would be dross like. I went to lincolnshire. I saw a bird. I went home. And frankly - who wants that? No one. What people want is pretty pictures. Like of Kingfishers and stuff. So here is a Kingfisher doing pretty.

Kingfisher - North Killingholme

In all seriousness I went to Lincolnshire on Tuesday hoping, nay praying that the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was refound. It wasn't obviously but I made do. An early start saw my first interesting birds appear as I hit the high tide roost. The Kingfisher above was hovering outside the hide window and then sat down so that even I could get a bad photo or two. The rest of the roost was pretty steady. A handful of Knot, a couple of hundred Redshank. Oh and 3,800 Black-tailed Godwit. And these boys were all packed in as you can see below. At least 10 were colour ringed but several were doing things like standing knee high in the water or on one leg making reads partial or impossible. So far the info forwarded me indicates one possibly two were from Portugal & one was from Iceland but any further info I will divulge when I get it. Might even whack together a bad google map. 4 Avocet were pratting about as well.

Black-tailed Godwit friends - North Killingholme

The count was fairly uneventful as large numbers of birds decamped onto the foreshore. Loads of juv Yellow Wagtails were on the sea wall joined by a few Common Sandpipers. No interesting gulls were seen but I did record Avocet on the foreshore for the first time along with a number of Turnstones.

Common Sandpiper - North Killingholme

After the count was done I decided to go for my backup lifer - the Semipalmated Sandpiper at Alkborough flats. This distant bird showed well in miserable conditions and whilst it was too far to see the semipalmations the super was resolutely not split and thats all I had really to go on. Having looked at pics on the interweb of the bird the bill looks deep based and the scaps seem better for Semi-P over Little Stint BUT who am I to judge with a lifetime experience of 1 Semi-P and a handful of Little Stints, none of which have been adults. What I could discern was the wader that dropped in infront of me was a very nice Wood Sandpiper. This along with a few flyover Greenshanks livened up procedings. Rather bizarrely a Fulvous Whistling Duck was present on the lagoon with Shelduck. My second Marsh Harrier of the day drifted over the reeds upsetting most things but not as much as the juv Peregrine that hammered through, failing to catch a cold.

Wood Sandpiper - Alkborough Flats

In other news this week:

Marsh Harrier  - Alkborough Flats



• Somebody has claimed a Short-tailed Shearwater off Pendeen watch. Good luck.
• A Common Crane is bimbling about Hornsea Mere and surrounds at moment. Hoping to catch up over the next few days.
• A video from Eigg of a Sunfish PERFECTLY imitates the sighting I had in the Moray firth this month. Apart from where it lies on its side and stuff. Check this out.

Right im off to think about how wonderful the Champions league is. Im a Spurs fan.