Tick 'n' go Birding: 19 hours spent to finally get the White-rumped sandpiper

Monday 17 August 2015

19 hours spent to finally get the White-rumped sandpiper

Up & out this morning by 5 am to have one more go for the White-rumped sandpiper, we thought we had it last Sunday but after 4 hours we gave up not being able to say for certain that we had it ticked.
So back we go on Saturday & spend 9 hours to no avail.
Brian was able to try again on Sunday & got lucky with a couple of good views of it,so Jimmy & I had to give it a go today.
We arrive at Oare marsh by 6 am & this time we get lucky as well when the target bird is right in front of us, not great light for a photo but a record shot taken.
So 14 hours taken for us to pin this lifer down but it was a short time before it took to flight, so we are now joined by another birder & spend the next 5 hours helping him to get a fix on the bird, unfortunately for him he had to leave before the bird was spotted again.
The marsh is full of hundreds of Godwits,plus many Avocet, Ringed plover,the odd Little-ringed plover, a dozen or more Yellow wagtail, Dunlin,Ruff, Knot,seven or so Curlew sandpipers, Little Stints all over the place also loads of Golden plover, a couple of Snipe & a Wood sandpiper is picked out in the corner of the marsh, many many Redshanks,four Greenshank & a Spotted Redshank also seen. The tide comes in & pushes all the Gulls onto the marsh & we are able to pick out the Bonapartes gull among the hundreds of gulls here so a really good effort on our part.
Jimmy then gets us another year tick when he scans behind us & picks out a nice Whinchat sitting in the sunshine.
A Peregrine pays us a visit & with the marsh being so full of birds it's a wonderful sight to see them all hit the sky together for a few minutes.
Oare marsh is a really nice place to be at this time of the year being so full of birds to watch, the sun can be a bit of a problem is the only drawback.