In under two weeks I've seen three mega patch waders, all ticks for me, and so far representing all my patch ticks of the year. I got a call from Dave Warren this evening saying 'I think I had a Curlew about half an hour ago in Infront George Field'. This seemed an odd place for a Curlew to be and I wondered how good his views were, and whether it could have been something else... Stone-curlew and Whimbrel crossed my mind. Ian and I rushed over and met Jamie by the farmhouse. There was no sign of the bird in Infront George but walking up the path towards Legal & General we disturbed the bird from a mere thirty yards from us.
Whimbrel! It ran a little then flew and landed not much further away in the field, showing well for Roy Weller, Paul Manville and Ian Magness who also managed to bag the bird before dark. I stayed until 8.45pm and the bird was still present. Hopefully it will remain tomorrow. This is the second record for the patch, remarkably exactly a year to the very day since Steve Gale had the first flying high over Slangs. It also represents my 120th CFBW bird.
I did some filthy twitching earlier in the day with Ian, dipping the Whiskered Terns at Shapwick Heath but there were six
Arctic Terns there plus
Cetti's Warbler,
Sedge Warbler,
Reed Warbler, c52
Black-tailed Godwits, a few
Redshanks, a
Lesser Redpoll, a booming
Bittern etc. On the way back a Bonelli's Warbler came through from Pagham so seeing as Ian needed it and I fancied seeing another we went and eventually connected with the bird later confirmed to indeed be a
WESTERN BONELLI'S WARBLER. Also at Pagham:
Cuckoo, 4
Whimbrels,
Bar-tailed Godwit, 18
Turnstones, 7
Ringed Plovers, two
Dunlins etc.
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| Western Bonelli's Warbler |
