It’s been a couple of grey, wet, misty, rainy, dreich days around Strathbeg this weekend. Like the typical contrary birders that we are, this is the kind of weather to get excited about in late summer as it brings lots of migrant birds that would otherwise fly past, down on to the reserve.
We’ve not been that lucky with little birds (we’re maybe the only site on the east coast that hasn’t seen at least one Greenish Warbler (yes, they’re really called that) in the past two days) but we’ve had a brilliant weekend for waders on the pools around the visitor centre.
We’ve been expecting our first Spotted Redshank of the year for a while and one turned up first thing Saturday morning. Vicky came in to twitch it and also managed (after a bit of consultation) to pick up four Curlew Sandpipers tucked in with the Dunlin. Last night and early this morning they were joined by a Pectoral Sandpiper- a wader that’s fairly scarce in the UK but is a bit of a Strathbeg speciality.
We’ve been seeing more and more Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Snipe, Lapwing, Greenshank and Curlew all week as well. Earlier in the week we also got a repeat visit from a Little Egret and a couple of juvenile Little Gulls were about on Wednesday.
Wet pony and wet Godwits
It’s been a remarkably good weekend to see birds of prey too. A very wet Buzzard spent most of Saturday sheltering under the hedge outside the centre, a Sparrowhawk has been stirring up all the waders on the pools, two Marsh Harriers (including one with a green wingtag) have been cruising around and I saw my first Osprey in a few weeks fishing in the silt trap beyond Tower Pool Hide.
Wet Buzzard
The sun did eventually break through this afternoon and a slightly different visiting migrant turned up in the wildlife garden, a tatty but rather lovely Painted Lady making the most of our late summer flowers. It’s been a very late year for butterflies and our garden’s still attracting lots of Tortoiseshell, Large Whites and the odd Red Admiral as well as White-tailed Bumble Bees and loads of other insects- if you manage to visit once the rain’s stopped!