Bar-tailed Godwit, whimbrel, curlew and oystercatcher at Alston Wetland at ISO51200.
MAY EASTERLIES BRING ARCTIC-BREEDING SHOREBIRDS TO EAST LANCS and the highlights this week for me were Bar-tailed Godwit and Wood Sandpiper, both at Alston Wetland. A lovely Little Gull graced Stocks Reservoirs, hawking insects between the buoys at the entrance to the Hodder Inlet and a Green Woodpecker call there briefly as well. Stepping out of the airport cab I headed off immediately to Alston for the Wood Sandpiper, which is fast becoming an annual migrant there. A Common Whitethroat was singing in the hedge in the SE corner of the site and the first swifts were back in the village. On Friday evening another futile search of Pendle Hill failed to turn up the dotterels of earlier that day. Late on Saturday evening a Lesser Whitethroat was calling and seen in the hedge along Pinfold Lane near the central screen.
ELOC year list: 119. Wood Sandpiper 120. Common Whitethroat 121. Common Swift 122. Bar-tailed Godwit 123. Little Gull 124. Green Woopecker
Wood Sandpiper, Alston Wetland.
Little Gull (second calendar year), Stocks Reservoir.