Thursday, August 25, 2005

Two phalaropes in 5 days - the score just keeps on rising. 193 species in total.

More hot pager news had me saddling up and heading south-west through squally showers to Pennington this morning - it really is a long ride (2 hours+), but I was rewarded immediately on arrival with good views of the juv/1st winter Grey Phalarope found by Russell Wynn this morning, on Butts Lagoon.


Photo by Russell Wynn

With a few Whitethroats and other migrants in evidence, I then headed quickly round to Normandy Marsh (via a Kingfisher and two Greenshanks), in the hope of a new migrant wader. It didn't take long checking the Dunlin flock to find a cracking juvenile Curlew Sandpiper right by the seawall - I did look for a Little Stint, but I think that's just being greedy! The ride home was pretty tough, but slightly wind assisted, and not too wet. 216km this week for five new species.