Over long, over camouflaged, and over here!

I couldn’t resist! I really shouldn’t have become so interested in rare birds as it would save some fuel money and the environment. Yes, I twitched the Baird’s Sandpiper jut round the corner in Nottinghamshire on Tuesday just gone, just in time as it wasn’t seen on the Wednesday! When we arrived at Idle Valley NR I wasn’t feeling very active (HO-----HO), on a serious note when we got there it took us a while to find the viewpoint! It was quite well sign posted though (see below) a stroll to the viewpoint was productive when I was able to pick the Baird’s up nearly straight away. Lovely bird and I watched it for about 20-30 mins in all, andver good views even though the pictures appear tell a different story! A very distinctive bird and it was clearly a juvenile bird (actualy it wasn't! Thanks to Mark N who alerted me I was incorrect. If only I looked at the RBS message that said it was an adult bird. BACK TO THE WADER BOOK! lol). I got a few terrible photos, I wanted remain on top form for my followers.

(Baird's Sandpiper sign)

(Baird's Sandpiper - HONEST! - Andrew K)

We then left this lovely bird and had a walk around the reserve itself. The highlight other than the Baird’s was a Yellow-legged Gull with very faint yellow legs, looks like my attention to the always pinkish legs of the thousands of Herring Gulls I have looked at paid dividends here! I was amazed at how faint the yellow legs where but I let me Dad have a look and they all took off and reshuffled and I think I picked it up again on the water swimming about but we couldn’t stay any longer to confirm that it was the same bird due to the brief view I had of the bird when it was on land. However it was most likely Yellow-legged Gull with Herring Gull being rare at this site at this time of year!!!! Apparently there are more Yellow-legged Gulls than Herring Gulls this time of year on the reserve. What was interest was the amount of Lesser black-backed Gulls, loads! Also we saw a very distant Black-necked Grebe not as obliging as the Houghton birds.

Until next time, Foghorn out!