In recent weeks a singing male white-spotted bluethroat has returned for its third summer to Slimbridge WWT. It's often been elusive, showing very infrequently, bringing to mind the Martin Mere bird from 10 years ago which could go missing for several hours at a time and then show for a few seconds. However, in the past week it's habits have changed for some reason and it's become a bit easier to see, so I decided that today was the day to call in for a look, having driven past it on several occasions so far this year. A strong supporting cast also made the visit very appealing.
The bluethroat was at Middle Point which is only accessible via the Summer walkway footpath and this was the first time I had been out on the estuary at Slimbridge. The bird showed well about four times in the 90 minutes or so that I was there at a distance of about 80m. It was a decent view through the scope and I could clearly hear it singing with it's tail cocked as it sang. This is only the second white-spotted bluethroat I have seen in the UK, the last was at Martin Mere and was also singing, almost exactly 10 years ago to the day.
It's been a great year for black-winged stilts in the UK with several pairs breeding at a number of sites including at least one pair in Yorkshire, but this is an unpaired single bird. I even found two on the spit at Pennington Flash two weeks ago, but there's no habitat there for them to breed.
Spotted redshank in breeding plumage, always a smart bird.
Male ruff in breeding plumage.
A coots feet!
Two common cranes........ the second is to the right of the obvious bird, apparently sitting on a nest.
Look at those legs!
Thank goodness for the white spot!
Middle Point.
When Peter Scott setup the then Wildfowl Trust here at Slimbridge in 1946, he used a few old Pill boxes as hides. The seawall was originally on this side of the Pill box, but it was moved to it's current position in 1990.
I wonder if this is the very pillbox from where he watched a lesser white-fronted goose on the Dumbles, which inspired him to set up the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust here.
From The Eye of the Wind, "....we had been in the pillbox, I suppose, for a little over half an hour, when Howard Davis said quietly, 'There's a bird here which interests me. Would you have a look at it?'. In a few moments he had directed me to the goose in question in amongst the tight mass of geese in front of us, and the moment my binoculars lit upon it I realised it was a lesser whitefront."
No comments:
Post a Comment