Minsmere for another fix of birding

I managed to get the Jims up for a day out and we headed to Minsmere as our chosen destination. The A12 was closed and we diverted through Colchester adding about twenty minutes to our journey and arriving around 6.15am to find the car park with just two other cars present. We walked out towards the sea picking up very little along the way. We entered the East hide to find two other birders present but they hadn't seen anything too exciting. One guy pointed out a couple of distant small waders and was pleased when I confirmed one was a Dunlin but the other was a White-rumped Sandpiper. We watched it for a while and it showed pretty much all the time and even moved a little closer but never crossed the midway point. As I was watching a small group of Dunlin I picked up a Pectoral Sandpiper amongst them. We knew the bird was present but had heard it was difficult to find or even see so I was very pleased to find it get everybody else on it and surprisingly it remained in the scope for quite a while. 

White-rumped and Pectoral Sandpiper at Minsmere

From East hide we also enjoyed views of Ruff, two Green Sandpipers and four Common Sandpipers, Dunlin, Avocet, Blackwits, Spotted Redshank, Turnstone and Ringed Plovers. As well as the waders the flood held a few feral Geese, large numbers of Common Terns and Black-headed Gulls.

Black-tailed Godwit

Juvenile Common Tern

Common Tern

Common Tern

Ruff

Spotted Redshank

We walked on the the public hide and from here we found another year tick with a juvenile Arctic Tern amongst the large numbers of Common, Little and Sandwich Terns.  Among the Terns were a couple of Little Gulls and we found another Green Sand, a Bar-tailed Godwit and another Spotted Redshank making it three for the day.

A lovely morning adding just three year ticks but really enjoyable to to be out and birding with the nice bonus of having a good chat with the guy that found last years Sooty Tern at Minsmere. I jokingly thanked him for costing me about six hours of my life as I dipped it at Sizewell. We left at lunchtime as the tourists arrived with the hides filling with young enthusiastic (noisy) children and people were actually  waiting for our space in the car park with it now full.

Year list now 215