A series of talks, walks and workshops had been laid on to help people get the most out of the weekend, and whilst we spent the majority of the time doing our own thing, the sheer amount of birders in the area meant that not much got through unseen and that news of sightings spread quickly, allowing folk to get onto most species picked up. However, saying that, we did manage to miss both wrynecks and common rosefinch, being about as far away from their locations as is possible when they were showing, and having to listen to that time honoured classic refrain of 'not been seen for about an hour' whenever we did get to the spot. That aside, we had a great weekend and saw plenty of birds. Waders, in particular, were very impressive in both variety and number. 19 species, including little stint, ruff, bar tailed godwit, spotted redshank, whimbrel and green sandpiper were seen alongside fantastic numbers of grey and golden plover, dunlin, redshank, greenshank and knot. Particularly impressive was seeing plenty of godwit and knot still in summer plumage.
Yellow wagtails were abundant, a showy red backed shrike kept the punters happy and 2 passing marsh harriers entertained the crowds enjoying the unusually hot and sunny weather. Numbers of commoner migrants like whitethroat, whinchat, wheatear, willow, sedge and reed warbler showed well, whilst observing ringing demonstrations featuring linnets, tree sparrows and meadow pipits proved interesting.
A highlight for us, and a first for Steffi, was flushing a corncrake from a grassy bank at Sammys Point - we passed the news on and it later appeared in the days report so presumably others got onto it later. 3 late swifts overhead as we were packing up to leave completed the checklist for the weekend which numbered 87 species. Great fun, and a firm date in our calendar from now on.
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