NT
On the 7th September:
1975
Overnight on Portland, in the morning we saw the Ring Ouzel and Spotted Flycatcher again, and there were 2 Corn Buntings. We left for a drive to Cornwall, arriving at Stithians Reservoir in the afternoon, there we met Bill Oddie for the first time, also seeing c20 Dunlin, 6 Ringed Plovers, 20+ Ruff, c40 Golden Plovers, 5-600 Lapwing, 2 Common and 2 Green Sandpipers, 2 Wood Sandpipers, 2 Curlew Sandpipers, 7 Little Stints and a Greenshank.
1978
An evening trip to Chew Valley Lake seeing 2 Green Sandpipers, 6 Greenshank and 7 Spotted Redshank.
1980
A visit to Chew Valley Lake where we saw 48 Dunlin, 2 Snipe, 3 Greenshank, a Spotted Redshank, 3 Green Sandpipers and we found a Buff-breasted Sandpiper.
Continuing around the lake we saw 4 Common Sandpipers, a Little Ringed Plover, 2 Ruff, a Turnstone, a Little Stint, 15 Ringed Plovers and found 2 Pectoral Sandpipers.
Above & left: Pectoral Sandpiper, drawings by Laurel Tucker.
Later, we went to Cheddar Reservoir where there was another Buff-breasted Sandpiper, also 3 Little Stints, 8 Dunlin, 2 Ringed Plovers, a Greenshank, a Spotted Redshank and a Wood Sandpiper.
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Drawing of Buff-breasted Sandpiper by Laurel Tucker.
1980
On a recce tour of Spain, 3 new birds and a new mammal seen today.
1993
On a birding trip to Spain.
2018
A visit to Slimbridge seeing c20 Ruff, 17 Snipe, 30+ Redshank, 2 Green Sandpipers, 80+ Black-tailed Godwits, a few Avocets, lots of Teal, a Marsh Harrier and 2 adults and a juvenile Common Crane.
Ruff
Snipe
Juvenile Redshank
2021
The second day of early entry, after corvid restrictions were lifted. On arrival I learned that the Bluethroat had been seen at Middle Point, I rushed down there but it had disappeared into cover! During the wait at least 3 Yellow Wagtails flew over, a Kestrel caught a vole sp. and 5 Bar-tailed Godwits were seen flying down river. I left and moved the short distance to the raised platform from where I could see a very distant Spoonbill with around 10 Little Egrets, and, 10 Common Cranes including 2 juveniles.
From there I went to the new tower hide, from which I didn't see much more on the 'Dumbles', but along the Tack Piece hedge was a Lesser Whitethroat and a Kingfisher flew along the ditch. From the Rushy hide there were 10+ Redshank, others elsewhere, 2 Greenshanks, a Spotted Redshank, several Ruff with others elsewhere, 2 Green Sandpipers with another 4 in other areas.
The South Lake was almost dry on the southern side, only holding gulls and 100+ Black-tailed Godwits. At the top and bottom New Piece there were quite a few Teal and Wigeon, a female Peregrine made a couple of passes, then the adult Glossy Ibis flew in and began preening on one of the islands, then 2 Great White Egrets flew over and ended up in the reeds at the southern end. Finally, the long-staying Ross's Goose was with the Barnacle Geese flock.
Record photo of Glossy Ibis.
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