Two and a half good days!

Day 1: Fluke Hall, Pilling, Lancashire

A long drive and the longest walk I've done since I fell in the ditch! Must have been half a mile but the limp is now much less well pronounced. And the bird performed really well in a very strong wind. What bird? Well, that's the problem. Pied wheatear [really good tick] or black-eared wheatear [lifer!]

I'll have to wait for the expert DNA analysis. Here she is.

General views of the site and of the assembled crowd.

Day 2: report of ring-necked duck at Saltholme tempted me out again. Not much walking involved. But in heavy rain on the main lake the bird was a long way off but could be scoped from the Visitor Centre. I headed for Phil Stead hide. Very quiet apart from some blackwits. A lesser black-backed gull dropped in.

This godwit puzzled me. Very dark and in all the photos this white eye is apparent. Is the bird blind in one eye? I know birds have an eyelid that sometimes shows in photos but to show in every single photo seems too much of a coincidence.

I decided to go to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party again and see if I could get better shots of the juvenile black tern as it was still present. I was quite pleased with these.

Someone said a merlin had been seen a few times at Phil Stead so I headed back there. The merlin duly performed. Made my day!!

Day 3: just 45 minutes spent in a very crowded Phil Stead hide at Saltholme watching a curlew sandpiper with some blackwits.

225 UK 2019

I'm still standing!

Well, just about. Been laid up with my bad leg. I blame the whinchat but my wife seems to have a different opinion. Very frustrating. I looked through some of my July photos to see if I'd overlooked anything worth saving. Here's three. Let's call this bit:

Disregarded or discarded!

A young pied wagtail at Bolton Abbey, a carrion crow and a white-winged black tern at Saltholme...

...which makes a nice link to my first venture out birding since 20th August. Back to Saltholme for curlew sandpiper [which had been frightened off by a harrier before I got there].  Not to worry. I went to the Alice's Tea Party area [I presume you all know where I mean - part way to the Wildlife Watchpoint] to photograph the juvenile black tern.

However the star attraction that replaced the curlew sand was a white-rumped sandpiper. Very pale individual. Also featured ruff, dunlin and blackwit. Here they all come.

Here's the white-rumped with one shot showing the slightly larger dunlin for comparison.

222 UK 2019

Falling for a whinchat!

Tuesday August 20th. Forty-sixth wedding anniversary. And I was going birding at the insistence of Sheila. It's a day I normally go birding. I might not bother next year...

First stop Hornsea Mere hoping for nice shots of little gulls. There were plenty of little gulls present but, unfortunately, they were all well out on the water to the right and beyond Swan Island. Here's just one very distant photo showing some of them.

Greylag geese flew overhead.

As did some young shelducks.

Of couse I saw a painted lady butterfly!

I decided to drive down to Kilnsea Wetlands.

A common sandpiper was outside the hide. In the first shot the bird looks rather 'head heavy' to me. Second one is more normal - same bird.

Redshanks flew in.

A couple of dunlin came close.

Walking back a patch of purple clover held a good number of common blue butterflies.

I was going to say the male above looks a bit moth-eaten but perhaps that's a rather mixed-up metaphor for a butterfly! This one's smarter.

I even managed a flight shot - well a taking-off shot at least.

Best of all I spotted a female and managed to keep track of her until she settled. Females are quite inconspicuous and shy so I was pleased with these two shots.

Guess what else I saw! A painted lady. I don't tire of seeing them. There'll be plenty of butterfly-free months to come.

At Sammy's Point I met a birder who told me there were whinchats in the set-aside field on the road down to Canal Scrape. I headed there. I had nice views and decided to move to a gate where I could rest the camera and get a good shot. I was about to press the shutter when the ground gave way beneath me and I slid down into a ditch. As I fell one leg snagged and twisted my leg severely. 

By the time I dragged myself to my feet holding onto the gate the bird had flown and I realised I could barely walk. 

I managed to drive home but my left leg is now very painful; walking is impossible other than a few yards and I'm resting up for a while. Deep heat creams, elevated leg, inactivity. I won't be birding for a while. 

But I got a tick. A nice male whinchat.

221 UK 2019