I haven't been birding since my trip to Bempton at the end of June so today I made a solo run to Snettisham. I arrived at 7am with high tide due at 8am but on arrival all the birds had already roosted on the pits but somebody had reported the Western Sandpiper (which was my target) at 6.40am although it hadn't been seen since. I picked up a year tick with my first Sanderlings of the year as I scanned the few Dunlin still on the mud. As birds started to return to the mud around 9.30am I picked out a Little Stint and Garganey whilst searching for the Sandpiper and around 10am as around thirty of us scanned the mud the shout went up "got it!" I moved up to get directions and very quickly was watching my second ever Western Sandpiper following the 2011/12 Cley bird.
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| Western Sandpiper at Snettisham |
Also at Snettisham lots of Little, Common and Sandwich Terns, a couple of Whimbrel, three Turtle Dove plus thousands of Knot. Hundreds of Oystercatchers and Godwits with the odd Turnstone. I picked up a couple of Med Gulls but couldn't find the reported Black or Roseatte Terns.
Following my early success I moved on to Frampton being just 25 miles out of my way and as I parked up I was put straight onto the Pacific Golden Plover but had better views later on as I got to the sea wall where I also had good views of Short-eared Owl, Marsh Harrier and Peregrine. My walk around the reserve gave up Spotted Redshank, Wood Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpipers, Greenshank, Spoonbills and many other good birds but I failed to find the reported Whinchat which I still need for a year tick.
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| Pacific Golden Plover |
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| PGP |
Year list now 211
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