White-tailed Plover........Bickershaw Rucks!

Amazingly the long staying white-tailed plover which has been on the east coast between Blacktoft and Hickling Broad since August last year and as recently as yesterday was at Saltfleetby in Lincolnshire, today turned up at Bickershaw Rucks behind the Nevison Inn. 

What an amazing find this must have been, and the bird is now in cracking summer plumage, almost a different species to the bird that I saw first in heavy moult at Blacktoft in early September.

My third in the North West, following birds at Leighton Moss in 2007 and Seaforth in 2010. It showed very well and didn't seem particularly jumpy, allowing approach to as close as 50m. Bickershaw gets a lot of disturbance from scrambler bikes and it doesn't seem likely that the bird will stay long but great to enjoy it while we can.

Edit: 01/06/2022 - The bird was still present yesterday but was flushed by bikes in the evening and left. The following day it was found at Woolston Eyes and the day after it had moved to Sandwell RSPB in the midlands.

Ullswater, Patterdale to Howtown

It was my 60th birthday weekend so we decided to spend it in Cumbria. We caught the Ullswater steamer from Glenridding to Howtown and then walked back via Hallin Fell, Hallinghag wood and Sandwick bay. Plenty of redstarts singing, plus a couple of smart pied flycatchers, but no wood warblers.

Spotted Sandpiper, Elton Reservoir

This wonderful summer plumage spotted sandpiper was at Elton Reservoir today, only the second for Greater Manchester and the first since 1982. Apart from the spots it was subtly different to the accompanying common sandpiper, being paler with a more distinct supercilium.

Turnstones and long-billed dunlin, Pennington Flash

Two cracking turnstones were on the spit at Pennington Flash today. At first they were quite distant but in the afternoon they showed brilliantly in front of Horrock's hide. Pretty sure that they are a pair.

Female left, male right?

Avocets back at Lightshaw and sanderling at Penny

Two avocets were at Lightshaw Flash this morning and it seems likely that they are the same pair which attempted to breed but got flooded out last year. They were also seen here on 28th April when they started to make a scrape in exactly the same spot as last year but then disappeared and have been missing for 11 days. They did something similar last year, but only went missing for two days. It's slightly frustrating because last year they arrived on 17th, made a scrape and laid eggs, but they were flooded out on 4th May. If they'd arrived on the same date this year and laid eggs, they probably would have been successful because it's been a very dry spring so far and there's no serious rain forecast at least for another two weeks.

Two sanderling and a dunlin were on the spit at Pennington Flash today.

 

Rescuing newts, Oswestry

Often when I do a survey it feels like I'm just ticking a box and I don't see very much, but today I actually felt like I achieved something. A job which I worked on a lot last year has come to an end and they're just clearing up, but there was a temporary flood alongside a pond which had previously been identified as a potential Great Crested Newt pond following DNA sampling of the water. 

Today they needed to pump out the water and fill in the flood, and I was required to transfer any newts that we found into the pond. Before I got there I had absolutely no confidence that we would find newts, but amazingly I managed to rescue 23 newts from the digger, including 6 great crested and 17 smooth newts.  Five of the great crested were females with eggs.

Sandwich terns, Pennington Flash

What a remarkable morning at the flash even by recent standards, here is a quick summary of events:

7:50am a message off Bill Harrison alerted me to the presence of 28+ arctic terns on the flash.

9:00am a black tern appeared off the boat club and arctic terns still present. Misty drizzle.

9:25am I was on the point of the ruck in now pouring rain and watching a group of Arctic's landing on the spit when suddenly I heard the characteristic call of a Sandwich tern overhead. I watched it land on the spit and then took my eyes off it and messaged Bill who was on the bench in East Bay. On looking again I realised that there were actually 3 Sandwich terns now on the spit. They remained here for the next 1 hour 25 minutes, occasionally briefly flying up and around the flash but soon returning to the spit. During this time I saw them displaying. Unbeknown to me at the time, these three birds were probably the same as three seen earlier for 5 minutes at Elton Reservoir, Bury, before flying south west at 8:50am. 35 minutes to get to the flash.

10:00am Whilst photographing the Sandwich terns on the spit I noticed that there was a smaller bird with a black hood on the spit, surely a little gull but in those conditions and with no scope I couldn't be sure. Still pouring down and misty.

10:05am Little gull flew from spit, an adult with a complete black hood. I managed to get Bill on it from East Bay before it disappeared. It was not seen again. 

10:50am Sandwich terns spooked by a large gull, flew high and away over the ruck. Not seen again. Most Arctic terns and black tern still present. Rain eased slightly, but still misty.

Other birds today, plenty of hirundines of three species, at least 20 swift and a common sandpiper.

Little gull and arctic tern, Pennington Flash

Today was inevitably a little quieter following the excitement of yesterday, but there was still a single arctic tern present on the flash and I made my way to the point where the best photo opportunities seem to be at the moment. I spent an hour or so trying to get a decent picture and then suddenly spotted a 1st summer little gull close in. It flew around for about 5 minutes and then just vanished, not to be seen again.

A tern up for the books at Pennington Flash

An amazing morning at the flash with birds literally falling out of the sky. It started with a little tern which turned up at about 9:30am and was seen well up to 12 noon. Meanwhile at 11:00am a group of 200 swifts appeared over the ruck and fed for a few minutes before departing north. To put this into context, I only saw my first swift of the year yesterday and prior to today there had only been three swifts at the flash all year. Then at 11:30am over 30 arctic terns dropped in from the south, the first arctic terns of the year. A few remained  into the evening, but most departed early afternoon and took with them the little tern. Finally two little ringed plover appeared on the yacht club foreshore.

A whimbrel had been on the spit first thing and a curlew flew over mid-morning, and there were three common sandpipers.