Time Off in October

 Off work for a while. I've had a bit of time to sort through more recant photos.

A few years ago we spent a lovely day on the Lizard hoping to see the Brown Booby that had been present in the area for a few days. Great crowd, decent selection of seabirds, Chough and so on, but no Booby.

This year there were more coastal sightings in various places, generally flybys on sea watches, but fortunately one of the birds settled for some time in Redcar, usually seen from the South Gare, so off we went to enjoy the early morning views of Middlesborough and the Tees estuary. The Booby had flown off by the time we arrived but was relocated on one of the many buoys at the mouth of the river. Distant, and the heat haze didnt help with the photography, but a relief to finally get to see one.

The estuary itself was full of razorbills and guillemots, guess the adults and young find it a safe place post breeding, plus many terns, a few skuas and waders.

We headed off to RSPB Saltholme where the Buff Breasted Sandpiper and Temminck's Stint showed after a bit of effort, but rather distant. Seal Sands/Greenabella Marsh had plenty of common waders, seals but no Pectoral Sandpiper.

We returned via Tophill Low where we finally got a Pec Sand and also on of the Blue Winged Teals that seem to be resident at the moment.

After one of my regular strolls around Fairlands, I took the opportunity to go down to Amwell, where the long staying, but often hard to find Osprey had settled. Been some time since my last visit so it was good to meet up with Phil and Ron again.

Last Sunday we paid yet another visit to RSPB Frampton. A bit easier to get to than Norfolk, plenty of waders always around  and no dog walkers or day trippers getting in the way.

This time there were several long staying American waders around, and an intriguing post on social media of an odd bird that had suggestions of a Least Sandpiper (later found to be one of the many Little Stints). Bumped into Ritchie Gannon in the car park and we all headed off to the crowded 360 Hide and found a space. Looking into the rising hazy sun was a problem where I was and after sorting through the mobile stints settled on a dumpy individual a long way off on one of the islands and hearing others on the bird came to the conclusion it was the Semi-palmated Sandpiper. Several poor phone scoped images were taken which showed the salient plumage features. Ritchie and a few others on the other side of the hide had flight views of the Lesser Yellowlegs and White-Rumped Sandpiper, so Colin and I headed off to the east hide for better light and hopefully closer views.

                                        

Crowded again and difficult to get clear vies past shoulders and heads. I found the White-Rumped, a long way off and managed to get a couple of phone scoped images. The Yellowlegs was a lot more obliging when it got close to the hide and I managed to get some great images.

Heading south along the sea wall was novel as our default in most visits is an anti-clockwise circuit.

The most notable thing was the steady stream of Red Admirals heading south.

Enjoyed watching a Peregrine put all the waders and ducks up and later found it perched in the pasture south of the seawall road. No sign of any Lapland Buntings, but just as we were leaving the Buff Breasted Sandpiper flew in and allowed close views.