Saturday 3 September 2011

Two Days of Frustration

After emptying the Moth trap yesterday morning, there were 3 birds tazzing around the garden, one was a Willow Warbler that perched up nicely and posed, the second one was a bit more elusive and turned out to be a female Blackcap and the third bird was so elusive that it only flushed at the last second and then flew over the house to god knows where ! The bird then showed up a couple of hours later in the front garden, perched up in the roses for long enough to get my bins to it - Booted Warbler !!!! it then flew over the house into the plantation. I saw the bird on 2 more occasions before it went dark - but no photos.
This morning there were more birds in the garden - Lesser Whitethroat, Spotted Flycatcher and 2 Willow Warblers, but no sign of the Booted. So I sodded of to do the rest of the patch - no more passerines but, 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, 2 Little Stints, 28 Dunlin, 9 Sanderling and a Curlew Sandpiper. Back at the house, a quick thrash through the plantation, and the Booted was still there. This time flying into a thistle patch in the field, camera in hand I walked slowly through the thistles - no sign ! 2 hours later it was in the garden again for brief views through the kitchen window before heading back to the thistles - again it just seemed to disappear, so I walked all the thistles, weeds, long grass, stone walls and any other bit of cover within a few hundred yards of the house - all in vain. I did a final thrash in the plantation at 6pm, nothing but the Lesser Whitethroat !
Spotted Flycatcher

Sanderling


Little Stint

Bar-tailed Godwits

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