A smattering of returning usual suspects kept the scoreboard ticking ever so slowly northward through April, allowing me to bang in swallow, the two martins, willow warbler and whitethroat among others. But the best of April's efforts were to come late in the month... last Thursday (27th) to be precise.
I was checking the shore of the lake for night herons, as you do, when this black and white thing flew overhead... with legs out back that just kept on going.Black-winged Stilt -- SCORE. It kept flying out over the lake and I lost it behind some willows, with no way to know where, or if it landed. Still -- a full fat patch tick, and a potential contender for patch find no less. And to think, if Seppy hadn't nagged me to go out I'd have stayed in the office for the afternoon.
After a quick scoot around failing to detect the errant stilt, I gave up and headed down to check the wee lagoon between Blind Harbour and Squince Beach. And lo, there I found two more of the long-legged beauties feeding between the wee islands at the eastern end of the lagoon.
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| Lanky wee pink-legged wonders on patch |
They even hung around long enough for Seppy to get his slow arse over from Galley the next day to verify them, and obliged by posing for a few shots too. Majik! Especially as Squince has a reputation for being "a bit shit for waders".
With April out of the way, a resplendent Reed Warbler singing its tits off from the north-east corner of the lake yesterday kick-started May's tally, catapulting me temporarily back into the top-spot.
Onwards!
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