Wots That Wader walk - 14th August

Highlights - 2 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Green Sandpiper.

An impressive 22 people came along today to increase their wader ID skills. Little did they know it, but we were not going to make it easy for them. Usually we tell people what things are and how they can ID them in the future. Today we asked everyone to work it out for themselves.

I was hoping everyone would concentrate on waders, but other birds were pointed out. A Heron by one of the pools with some Teal swimming close by. A Common Tern on top of a post with a Cormorant further out to sea. A flock of Starling in some scrubby bushes and several Coot and Moorhen out on the water. It was great to see a line of 8 Little Egrets feeding out on the marshes.

However the waders did steal the show today. On the shoreline were several Redshank, Oystercatchers, Turnstone and Curlew. A Grey Plover, in beautiful summer plumage, was seen feeding with some Redshank. As we walked along the sea wall more Redshank and Oystercatchers were seen.

We soon got to one of the larger pools called Fishtail lagoon. Here there were several Black-tailed Godwit asleep on one of the islands and a couple out feeding in the shallow water. Most were in w inter plumage, but one or two did still have the wonderful russet head and chest of summer plumage.

John Evans then pointed out two waders feeding on the adjacent pool. They were Wood Sandpiper, quite a rare bird in Hampshire. They pass through in small numbers and are not seen at Pennington Marshes each year. On Fishtail Lagoon 1 Snipe, 1 Dunlin and 1 Green Sandpiper were found feeding on the far side and on the walk back about 10 Ringed Plover were feeding on one of the dried up parts of a pool.