Saturday, 15 August 2015

Baird's Sandpiper...

The morning was looking slow...Dave Helliar and I had both considered heading down to Exminster Marsh for a juvenile White-winged Black Tern that's been showing well there. Early news on Twitter looked good but then news went quiet. Exminster Marsh isn't normally a difficult journey by any means but the thought of getting caught up in Saturday holiday traffic heading to and fro Devon and Cornwall was too much to bear and with the lack of news the plan was shelved.

Jump forward a couple of hours and I received a call from Dave on my mobile. The mobile reception in Whitestaunton is appalling and no sooner had I answered the call than I decided to call him back on the landline as I could barely make out what he was saying to me. He picked up the phone: 'There's a probable Baird's at Black Hole Marsh'! Within minutes we were on our way to take a look for ourselves. When we arrived there was still a degree of uncertainty as to whether it was a Baird's or a White-rumped Sandpiper but before long it had flapped it's wings to reveal a dark-centred rump with white sides. It was close too, probably no more than 25 ft away and giving great views, even if the sun was behind it most of the time. A little corker.

Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh: Dave Helliar
Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh: Dave Helliar
Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh: Dave Helliar
Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh: Dave Helliar
Couple of nice pics in from Andy Grinter too:

Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh: Andy Grinter
Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh: Andy Grinter
Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh: R. Harris
Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh: R. Harris
Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh: R. Harris
Baird's Sandpiper, Black Hole Marsh, Devon

As always, videos were recorded in 1080p, but YouTube typically defaults to 360p. Once the video is running, you can click on the configuration settings icon and select the higher 720p to 1080p options for better quality.

A nice find by local birder Phill Abbott. Let's hope this is the start of a great autumn.

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