And then a spoonbill dropped in!
Yes, that one took everyone by surprise this morning. Spotted on Old Moor’s Field Pool early on, sadly this remarkable visitor stayed only a short time. While it was here, it was best viewed from the Field Pool West hide. Shortly after 10:30 the bird left, heading in what looked like direction of Adwick.
Staff from Old Moor working at Adwick Washland this morning, began to get excited. It seemed that they would have a ringside seat as the spoonbill flew directly towards them. Perhaps it would land and maybe even feed on one of Adwick’s pools.
But then time went by. By 11:20, and despite optimists searching all over the Washland, it was nowhere to be found. Wherever the spoonbill had flown, it had missed Adwick altogether!
The last report of a spoonbill at Old Moor that I have was of a ‘fly-through’ on 14 May this year. Before that, the previous one was of two spoonbills (briefly) in front of Wath Ings Hide on 11 October 2015. By no means a regular occurrence then, but a very welcome one!
An oystercatcher on the Wader Scrape this afternoon
At Adwick Washland this morning there were: three little egret, gadwall with seven young and another with six, three broods of shoveler (nine, seven, five and three), pochard with four young, twenty-two redshank and one juvenile, two ringed plover, one little ringed plover, one green woodpecker, three blackcap, one lesser whitethroat and a sedge warbler. My thanks to Nigel Smith for those numbers.
A lapwing feeding in the sun
Back at Old Moor, bittern sightings continued apace. In fact, during the time I was at Old Moor today, adult birds were being seen every fifteen to twenty minutes!
On the Mere was a single Mediterranean gull with two chicks as well as one shelduck, around forty coot, twenty pochard, one herring gull, twenty-four lesser black-backed gull, twenty swift, one sparrowhawk and one buzzard. There were also sand martin, swallow, Canada geese, grey heron, lapwing and little grebe.
Great crested grebe on Wath Ings
The Field Pool, now spoonless, provided sightings of two little egret, nine teal, one wigeon, one common tern, two little grebe and around ten lapwing. There were also starling, black-headed gull, grey heron, shoveler and jackdaw.
Sightings from the Wader Scrape comprised of: three common tern, one oystercatcher, a male teal, two redshank, one buzzard, one peregrine and two shelduck with two young. Sadly, six young shelduck have been predated since my last blog although by what, isn’t completely known.
A swift skimming over the Mere
So, inevitably to Wath Ings where the sightings included: three cormorant, one shelduck, one little grebe, one great crested grebe and a bittern.
I shall finish off tonight with a last image from the day. Here is one of the female bitterns that regularly fly around the edges of Wath Ings at present. This one was photographed today at 15:15.
Until next time.