There's been a white-tailed lapwing at Blacktoft RSPB for the past week or so and today I finally got the opportunity to call in for a look. It's the seventh for the UK and my third following birds at Seaforth (2010) and Leighton Moss (2007). The Seaforth bird was a pristine spring adult, occasionally showing down to 10m or less, and todays bird doesn't come close to that, but even so it showed very well, though occasionally it disappeared behind one of the islands or tall vegetation.
There was a brief sighting of what was presumably the same bird in Kent in early June, but nothing since and these records were the first for eleven years, so when it turned up at Blacktoft about a week ago there were queues to get into the hide. However, when I arrived this morning at 10:30 the car park was barely half full and though the hide was busy, there was space and certainly no queues.
It brings the wader count on the reserve to an impressive 52 species and by Blacktoft standards it's actually not that rare. Back in the 1980s I saw two firsts for Britain here, Hudsonian godwit and Red-necked stint.
Other waders today included 2 little stints, 2 spotted redshanks, 4 green sandpipers and about 30 dunlin. On the way home I called in at Southfield reservoir where there was a black
tern which was my first of the year.
Year list: 238 (White-tailed lapwing, spotted redshank, black tern)
It's heavily moulting and is actually quite a tatty looking individual, although to be fair my photos don't do it any favours!
Little stints.
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