I'm not sure if Baird's Sandpiper was named after the inventor of the old Ned Kelly or not but the bird itself has far from film or even TV star looks. I've seen a couple before and always considered their rarity to be much more interesting than their physical appearance. When I received news of one at Eyebrook whilst at work today I was quite relaxed at first, I'd already seen one there in the 1990's and another in Cambridgeshire a bit more recently. FOMO however gradually began to play its hand and I eventually gave in and arranged to pop over there in the company of birding pal Alan Shorrock even though it meant cancelling a prearranged beer session with work mates.
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| Walking Weetabix - Baird's Sandpiper |
A fine sunny afternoon meant that the light was good when we reached the bird's reported location in the bay north of the island. Several birders were gathered at the gate from where it had been showing and they had good news for us - the bird was still present and showing well. Good views through the bins and scope followed before I tried to take some record shots. We watched it for several minutes before it walked out of view. From a small gap in the perimeter hedge nearby we were able to get further if rather more distant views of the bird before deciding to moving on.
Our stop at the inflow failed to produce a sighting of the reported juvenile Garganey but did allow us to see three Cattle Egret which were rather boringly associating with the regular herd of grazing cows. Also showing were two Whinchats from the inflow viewing bunker bringing our evening to a very agreeable close, a pint in the 'spoons insured that I eventually got that after work beer!
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| Baird's again. |
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