Marshside & Inner Marsh Farm

Long-billed Dowitchers, Inner Marsh Farm

Barnacle Geese, Marshside

Golden Plovers, Marshside

Greenshank, Marshside

Black-tailed Godwit, Marshside

Odd looking Wigeon - certainly in more advanced state of moult than the others plus lighter head and dark eye patch!

Saturday morning found me heading for Marshside – partly because I wanted to see the Long-billed Dowitcher, a species I have seen only once before, and partly because I couldn’t think of anywhere else I could be bothered to go. When I found the road shut just past Weld Rd and lots of Police around I assumed there had been an accident – I was completely unaware it was airshow day!
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I started off at Junction Pool – approx 200 sleeping Black-tailed Godwits including a ringed bird and a Snipe – not a lot else. It was also curious that hardly any other birders were around – I probably saw less than a dozen birders here all morning. I headed off down to Nell’s where there more Blackwits and a couple more Snipe plus a few ducks. A few minutes later while fiddling with my phone I suddenly looked up to see a Barn Owl drift right past the hide window – the bird was no more than three feet away from me – bloody awesome! I could have reached out and touched it. Shortly after a few other birders arrived – one of them found a Greenshank which had just dropped in.
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I left Nell’s and headed back up the road towards the sand plant. A Merlin dashed low across the marsh – I quickly found another one perched on a nearby fencepost. I decided to walk Billy up towards Crossen’s Marsh – by the time I arrived at Crossens Outer Marsh I had counted 35 Little Egrets! A Peregrine was on the ground out on the marsh with a Great Black-backed Gull in attendance hoping to steal some scraps from the falcon’s breakfast. Five Kestrels were in the air and around 50+ Golden Plovers and a couple of Ruff by the flash. I scanned Crossens Inner Marsh next – this place was lifting with approx 1200 Wigeon with 3000+ Pink-footed Geese and 250+ Greylag Geese. I eventually found four Barnacle Geese in with the pinks.
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There was no sign of the Long-billed Dowitcher on any of the pools (or any birders looking for it) – I then got news that one had appeared at Inner Marsh Farm. So that’s where the little bugger was! The traffic was getting a little silly by this point with queues of people trying to get a prime spot for the airshow so I headed back to the car and home.
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This morning I woke up before it came light to hear the Tawny Owl calling in the garden. I spent some time watching MOTD before I got fed up and decided on a brief trip to Inner Marsh Farm (I didn’t have much time to spare). I arrived at 8-45 to find no one there – trudging down the hill I met the warden and one of his assistants coming back up. They confirmed the LBD was showing well in front of the hide. I walked into the hide to find another birder in the corner – he simply pointed at what I though was a clump of reeds. I took this to mean the LBD had gone behind it so I scanned the rest of the pool before finally spotting the LBD well away from where the guy had pointed. By this point three other birders had followed me in.
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As I started scoping the Dowitcher a second wader drifted into scope view – it was a second Dowitcher. I looked up to see if anyone else was watching this – no one commented. I starte doubting myself and went back to the birds – they were both surely Dowitchers. The guy next to me then said “ what’s the wader with the Dowitcher?” He was obviously thinking the same thing as me – I replied it was a second bird. All of a sudden everyone was scanning the birds, recalling ID, doubting ourselves and checking that we were watching Dowitchers. Ultimately we all conceded there were two birds feeding side by side – absolutely superb!
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All of a sudden every bird on the water shot up and away – a ring-tailed Hen Harrier then appeared and gave stunning views right in front of the hide. Fortunately everything settled down afterwards though the two LBD’s were now feeding further away. Also present were 16 Pintail, 120+ Shoveler, 3 Snipe, 24 Black-tailed Godwits and a couple of Dunlins. All too soon time ran out and I headed back up the hill to the car. When I reached the car park, Colin the warden was there with his assistant – I broke into a big grin and said “now’t like being greedy having two Dowitchers is it”. I could tell by the look on his face that he was completely unaware of the second bird and he soon shot off down the hill. From our brief discussion it was clear that yesterdays LBD was not the Marshside bird – presumably the second bird this morning is. Or are there three Dowitchers in the NW at the moment? That would be something!