Over sixty miles inland, it’s hard to believe that for a third day, a grey phalarope was seen by visitors to Old Moor. Here’s the summary of birds recorded today…
So why all the fuss about a grey phalarope? Well, this is a bird that spends almost all its time at sea. It only travels to the lands of the high Arctic to breed. Then, after a very short breeding season, it heads back to the oceans off South Africa.
Records of grey phalarope inland in the UK are scarce but regularly happen at this time of year, especially after storms. Usually, if you want to find this bird, you’d have to head to the coast. So it was no surprise that most people who saw the phalarope at Field Pool East today said the same thing – that this was a first for them.
And views were very good, though the bird was mostly on the far side of the marsh from the hide. However, occasionally watching was made difficult by it being a very bright day with a breeze that caught the waters and created ‘phalarope-sized’ waves. Turns out that picking out a small, silver, black and white wader is fairly tricky on small, silver and white waves!
What a little cracker of a bird!
With all the hubbub around the phalarope, watchers could be forgiven for missing the fact that there were sixty-seven gold plover on the marsh today. Numbers of these fantastic birds are rising daily at the moment and they are well worth watching out for.
Some of the goldies from Wath Ings today
Other highlights from the day included a visit from the ‘Bolton’ great white egret, a bird that seems to be visiting Old Moor regularly in the late afternoon at present.
Some eagle-eyed watchers even spotted a red kite today (some said two) and this also is becoming a bit of a regular event in the skies over Old Moor.
That’s about it for tonight. I’ll finish with one last picture. This one’s a green sandpiper (and its catch) that provided a bit of a distraction from all that phalarope-spotting.
Until next time.
Green sandpiper feeding at Field Pool East today