Green Warbler, Buckton, East Yorkshire 11 September 2021
SOME NUMBERS INCREASED BY ONE THIS WEEKEND. That’s about what my birding amounted to. First of all a Pectoral Sandpiper at lunchtime on 10 September at Alstion Wetland, found by Gavin Thomas, was a new bird for the Ribchester 5KO and the East Lancs ELOC area for me. It spent the brief few minutes I was there creeping around the far shore of the wetland lagoon, so basically rubbish views before I had to go and move my car so Phil and I decided to shove off home/back to work.
Secondly the Green Warbler at Buckton in East Yorkshire moved my UK list on by one as well. Many thanks to Rocket for the lift and another grand day out. The warbler kept us waiting in the dell for almost three hours, which is bascially Mark Thomas’s ringing station project. Top marks and many thanks to him for his years of hard work that culminated in this 8th record for Britiain and only 2nd for the mainland. The crowd of birders assembled by the dell had been instructed by Mark to stay back and he did a brilliant job of keeping it a pleasant atmosphere with no-one rushing the bird, which returned to a small crab apple tree, surrounded by willows waving in the wind in the middle of the dell. It was apparent that some folks still need to spend some time getting know Willow Warblers, of which there was a couple and a Yellow Wagtail flew north, calling. I have been talking about what next after White-tailed Lapwing and Sykes’s Warbler from Central Asia, so what next then?
Oh and there was the Black-browed Albatross on Staple Newk at Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve as well, a bit distant and then it flew directly out to sea to continue the series of poor distant views. This didn’t seem to matter too much, it was great to catch up with some friends today as well.