Occasionally I suffer from high levels of anxiety and at such times I just can't cope with packed hides or even other birders. There were far too many people for me in Border hide at Burton Mere Wetlands when I arrived today and I didn't even look to see if the Wilson's phalarope had returned after being flushed by a peregrine earlier, I just walked in, recoiled and walked out with the intention of heading back to the car and leaving. Fortunately, by the time I'd walked back to reception the bird had relocated to the main scrape and I managed to watch it from the almost empty Bunker hide for 20 minutes before the birding masses also relocated, at which point I abandoned the bunker and left! Anxiety can be a disabling condition, in 2019 I wrote about it here.
My first Wilson's phalarope was at Cley Marshes in 1983, but since then I've seen another nine individuals and they have all been in the Ribble / Mersey / Dee area. Four of the 10 have been at Martin Mere. Todays bird brings my year list to 240.
Wilson's phalaropes are really elegant, smart looking birds and I was glad to have managed to see this one despite my difficulties. It also flew around a couple times showing off it's white rump.
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