Thursday 26 September 2019

Boddington Reservoir :: 26 September 2019

As the end to the working day approached I looked at my phone and saw that the little stint, found at Boddington Reservoir by Mike Pollard yesterday, was still present. I opted for a sharp exit from the office and turned left for the reservoir, rather than right for home.

I arrived at a little after 5.00pm and by 5.15pm I was on the shore scanning the mud flats on the waters edge. A wader feeding in a distant bay caught my attention, and as I got my bins on it, I could see it was a ruff. I scanned some more and spotted what looked like a candidate - small in size - but it turned out to be one of two green sandpipers. Soon I was passed by someone who stopped and came over to chat - turned out to be Mike Pollard, back for another look. As I'd just come from work I didn't have my scope, but Mike did. We had better views of the ruff through the scope but couldn't pick up the stint.

After just a couple of minutes another chap joined us - it turned out to be Mike Alibone - Mike A picked up best dressed birder (smart suit), and then the stint from a better vantage point. We all headed across and found it was just about as distant as it could manage. A juvenile yellow-legged gull on the wing was all that was worthy of additional mention.

Sightings (16) included: black-headed gull, buzzard, canada goose, cormorant, green sandpiper, grey heron, greylag goose, lesser black-backed gull, little stint, mallard, moorhen, pied wagtail, ruff, woodpigeon, wren and yellow-legged gull.

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