Huge numbers of Black Tailed Godwits.
I had another very enjoyable birding session at Oare Marshes this morning and my primary target was Temminck's Stint which was seen yesterday , i parked up near the slip way and made my way back towards the east flood noting several Little Egrets as i went , there were huge numbers of Black Tailed Godwits on the flood which i would estimate in the region of 2000+ birds .
I spoke to a couple of birders and they said it was seen earlier but not for a couple of hours , i then walked around to the hide where i met up with Steve Ashton and Adam , who informed me it was seen in the small pool west of the road .
Golden Plover in various states of plumage.
We made our way back down the road and bumped into Chidders , whilst we were chatting an Egret caught my eye flying away from us fairly high and i noted it seemed to have dark feet however i could not get anything else on the bird , another birder felt sure it was the Cattle Egret and to be honest it could have been however non breeding Little Egrets feet can appear very dark especially at a distance so for me this will have to go down as a possible and no more.
There were lots of waders on the flood including 3 Curlew Sandpipers in with the Godwits plus Dunlin , Avocet and Redshank were well represented .
Record shot of Temminck's Stint.
I then said my goodbyes and headed to the sea wall to try and see this Temminck's Stint , well i put in quite a bit of time here and the Stint was not playing ball however both Greenshank and a single juv. Ruff were seen from here , i was chatting with another birder when we were waved at by some other birders from the road , when i joined them they said they had just had the Stint right at the back of the pool which was not viewable from the sea wall , well after about 15 mins it flew out of the pool and circled around and landed again out of sight , i was very pleased to see it as it was both a new patch tick as well as a welcome year tick .
After another 30 mins the Temminck's Stint had still not appeared although i did see a Little Ringed Plover whilst i was waiting , i decided to head off and join with Chidders and gang and i added a few butterflies to my days trip including a single Clouded Yellow although there were more around , after a while we all decided it was time to head off and Chidders and myself had one last look for the Temminck's Stint and to my delight i got some great views through the scope and then went home very happy.
