Pectoral Sandpiper...
A new bird arrived on the reserve today- a juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper, this long distance migrant breeds in Arctic Canada and Far Eastern Siberia but is an annual visitor to these shores. This is the first record for the reserve in 2016, we usually record at least one on site every year. This individual was found by a trio we on the Reserve staff call the 'Sunday gang', two of which are WWT Slimbridge volunteers (Roberta and John), the former was the keen eyed observer who originally spotted this scarce bird.
Digi-scoped image of the Pectoral Sandpiper with a Teal that was taken on 50X zoom and in heat haze!
Visible migration/migrants
A Fieldfare and 2 Siskins flew over the Kingfisher hide this morning. On the rounds at least 5 Chiffchaff were noted.
Zeiss Hide/Top New Piece
Also present today was a Dunlin, 7 Snipe, 70 Lapwing a few Ruff and at least 700 Wigeon (see image below) and 600 Teal. Cetti's Warbler was singing below the hide.
South Lake
Waders on the scrape contained at least 70 Black-tailed Godwit, 7 Ruff, 15 Redshank and over high tide 23 Red Knot. At least 110 Tufted Duck were on the deep lake with Little Grebe and 2 Pochard.
Rushy Pen Hide
The usual flock of Teal and a Black-tailed Godwit on the lower pond, three Little Grebe on the top lake that is drained to conduct improvements and essential maintenance to one of the islands. We are removing and replacing the gravel, removing concrete, re-landscaping to improve the island for birds, especially waders but also for scarce plant species.
