Blue House Farm

I headed up to Blue House Farm today having some free time and not wanting to drive too far.

As I got to the hide at Round marsh around 7am I found Dave already set up in there and already onto a Temminck's Stint. Viewing the Stint into direct light was difficult and it took a good while to see it in better light to confirm it was actually what we'd first thought, although quite confident it did appear more Little Stint like in the harsher light looking east.

Temminck's Stint

Snipe and Temminck's Stint

Temminck's Stint

Temminck's Stint

Temminck's Stint

Nine Spoonbill sat motionless out on the back edge of the marsh and we found three Wood Sandpipers along with at least ten Green Sands and three Common Sands with one a very fresh juvenile bird. A single Ruff, Two Greenshank, adult and juvenile Redshank, Oystercatchers, Dunlin and Avocet were encountered as we scanned the marsh and there were lot's of Blackwits with a recent count of 300 noted plus four Snipe feeding close in. Lot's of Yellow Wagtails were seen along the track amongst the cattle and out on round marsh, Marsh Harriers flew through causing a little concern amongst the waders and then a Peregrine spooked everything and buzzed passed the hide at speed. A male Sparrowhawk sat out on the edge of the marsh for a while and a Hobby flew over around midday to add to the highlights.

Wood Sandpipers

Wood Sandpiper

Snipe, Wood Sandpiper and Temminck's Stint

Wood Sandpiper and Snipe

Snipe and Blackwit

Peregrine

Green Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

A Grey Heron took an almost fully fledged Little Grebe but struggled to swallow it and appeared to abandon the meal. We tried to locate the other birds recently reported like Pec Sand, Curlew Sand and Little Stint but if they were there they were too distant for us today. The young Cuckoo that's been around the car park of late appears to have fallen prey to the Sparrowhawk yesterday and there was no sign of the Melanistic Little Egret today.

Grey Heron with the Little Grebe

A nice morning with good company, the marsh looks great with  water levels promising, The birds showed well in the scope but were a bit of a stretch for the 400mm lens as you can see by the above. 

The pointless year list was nudged along to 223 with the Stint.