I often really regret not taking up sketching birds when I was younger. I do
my best with my camera but some experiences I just can't capture for varying
reasons, e.g. limitations of my camera, distance, brevity of the sighting,
weather, operator incompetence etc.
I was at the Point of the Ruck today in heavy drizzle on a
dull day hoping to get a photo of an arctic tern that was flying over by
the sailing club, when I suddenly heard the familiar call of a ringed plover.
This peeked my interest but not overly so since earlier I'd seen a juvenile on
the sailing club shoreline and I assumed that it was just this bird moving
around. I scanned the water looking for it but immediately caught sight of a
flock of five waders which were about to fly past me.
I've been in this situation before, I usually fumble around with my camera
with one hand whilst trying to watch the birds through binoculars with the
other. The result is usually an out of focus and shakey view through the bins
and a few crappy, blurry photos of birds flying away from me which are
completely useless aids to their identification. In other words the whole
experience ruined and no identification obtained.
For once I acted decisively and ignored the pull of the camera and focused on (litterally!) seeing the
birds. They were approaching a yellow buoy so I pointed the scope at it and
waited for them to fly through and then followed them in the scope as they
headed over towards the sailing club. Four of them were obvious, three ringed
plovers and a moulting adult dunlin but what was the other bird? Actually it
was just as obvious, from size alone it had to be little stint. It had a
short, straight bill and appeared half the size of the dunlin, though
obviously in reality it was a little larger than that. As it flew away from me
I could see two pale tramlines down it's back making it a juvenile....
...and this is where I regret not having the ability to sketch the scene. I
had no chance of a photo but perhaps I could have conveyed some of the
excitement of the moment in a sketch. It's not to be though, so you'll have to
make do with a photo of a common tern and a juvenile ringed plover.
The little flock headed off west and were gone and I turned my attention back
to the flash and was delighted to find myself face to face with a juvenile
black tern which must have just dropped in because I hadn't seen it earlier. The fifth black tern of September and just the sort of thing that can happen
on such a day as this, misty drizzle is just the best weather there is for
birding at the flash!
In total there were eight species of wader today. I think that must be some
kind of record for me at the Flash. Apart from those already mentioned the
juvenile ruff was still present on the spit with a common sandpiper and 50
lapwings, while there were three green sandpipers on Teal scrape and the usual
oystercatcher on the car park. Three species of tern isn't bad either, with
common, arctic and black terns present.
Just to complete a great day a great white egret was at the eastern reed bed
and my first of the winter skein of pink-footed geese flew over, with 13
heading east. Phew! It was hard to keep up at times!
Moulting adult common tern.
No comments:
Post a Comment