Blacktoft Sands

I had a trip out to Blacktoft sands today mainly for the wood sandpiper and the little stint.
I got there about 8.40 and was able to get into the hides straight away.The wood sand was on townend hide to start and then moved over to marshland.
It was there that most of the action happened, wood sandpiper,little stint,spotted redshank,black tailed godwit, avocet, snipe, plus some more common waders and wildfowl.
There were also some grey wagtails which are apparently quite scarce for Blacktoft, plus yellow and pied wags, a hobby and marsh harrier kept the waders on their toes plus occaisonal glimpses of the barn owl in its box.There has also been a juvenile peregrine about just lately(but didn't show whilst I was there)
The most supising sighting for me was seven bearded tits feeding openly on the mud flat, usually I have fleeting views of birds in the reeds but these stayed out in the open for a long time.
There was some good birds today, I got there early and left just after 11 I suppose crowds of people are to be expected at Blacktoft on a Sundayin August but the constant almost shouting at the excitement of relatively common birds made it rather uncomfortable.
Give me the peace and quiet of my bag hide any day.








Humber Waders

I've been having some problems uploading my photos just lately so these are some images from last weekend.
I've been down to my favourite spot at Patrington haven and managed some shots of the usual redshank,greenshank and dunlin but i wanted some variety so I tried a ne place at Paull and got the shots of the black tailed godwit and common sandpiper.
They wer taken in late evening but all the other shots were taken early in the morning.
For the green sandpiper, I had gone bak to Pat Haven with an idea of getting even closer setting up under a bag hide right at the edge of the mud.
It didnt take long for the waders to come on to the lagoon and I heard the green sand calling but thought it flew over.
Unknown to me it had landed about 5 metres away.When I eventually got it in focus I managed a few close up shots then it went to the other side of the lagoon.
Also about were thousands of knot, a curlew sandpiper and a massive flock of gulls, turtle dove at the car park.