There weren’t as many on the island this morning, instead all of the action was on the near shore where there were 3 Greenshank and 4 Common Sandpipers.
Instead of heading straight to the coast we made a worthwhile detour to Bothal pond and Longhirst Flash.
At Bothal a Juv Spotted Redshank and Green Sandpiper were in the long grass on the right bank. The Spotted Redshank made a positive run along the bank towards us and my waiting camera but at the last minute decided to fly off across the pond.
A Yellow Wagtail was flying over the horse field behind the pond.
At first it looked as if there was nothing at Longhirst Flash but just after a Green Woodpecker flew over from the woodland, two Juv type Garganey came out of the reeds at the bottom left corner of the flash.
With the Semipalmated Sandpiper on the beach at Cresswell we went to the hide instead.
A single Ruff was on the sandbar and 61 Gadwall landed on the left bank.
11 Black tailed Godwit flew from the causeway over the hide before landing again.
A Water Rail was screeching from the small patch of reeds in front of the hide and it wasn’t long before I could see it head poking out from a pile of cut reeds.
It walked on top of the cut reeds before running into deeper cover.
We decided to have a second look at the Semi P and watched it at close range on the rocks on the beach. It was amongst a group of Sanderling, Dunlin and Knot. A Whimbrel flew past calling and a pale phase Arctic Skua was mobbed by Terns over head.
Spot the Ruff
