Brian visited Blue House Farm a few days ago and had a great time there.
So when he asked us if we wanted to go with him for a return visit, we jumped at the chance to get an afternoon out birding.
The farm is in Essex and only an hour away from home, I had never been there before, and I found that hard to believe, and I thought I would recognize it when we got there but I had never been there.
We got the car parked in a tiny car park but the upside it was free.
A walk of about a mile across a couple of fields before we reached the small hide that had a few birders in there, a friendly lot that made room for us to start looking for the Temminck's.
As luck would have it the bird was just a few feet away on a small island so a good year tick within minutes of arrival. a cracking little bird, so small when looking at other birds around it.
We spend about 4 hours in the hide with some good company and pick up two more year ticks when we spot 3 Wood Sandpipers and 3 Curlew Sandpipers to get the year list moving after not getting out in recent weeks.
We were told the water level was on the way down by a local named Dave, so we got lucky
when we also see 9 Spoonbills, 2 Greenshank, 4 Common Sandpiper, 6 Ringed Plover, loads of Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Ruff, and 16 Snipe plus Avocet and Marsh Harrier that put the Spoonbills up in the air for good views. A really pleasant afternoon and not far away from home and I'm sure we will visit again.
