Tonight I went out to the Abram area to have a look at the large numbers of Black Tailed Godwits that are being talked about so much on the Manchester Birding forum. I started at Dover Basin where local birders had been going ecstatic about an Osprey catching fish for a week or so in the middle of May.
Unfortunately I missed this great event, so I was determined not to miss the Godwits. I decided to take only my scope and binoculars with me, as I was not expecting to get close enough to get any decent pictures of anything today - this proved to be the case.
When I got to Dover Basin there wasn't much about. I saw a couple of the aforementioned Godwits, some Gadwall, Shelduck, Coot, Lapwing and Swallow. Whilst out at Dover Basin I met Rob Thorpe who kindly offered to show me the path through the undergrowth way to Lightshaw Hall Flash. On the way we saw a Buzzard just taking off from a nearby field.
Once on the lane overlooking Lightshaw Hall Flash, we set up the scopes and started looking for the Godwits. At first there seemed to only be a few, but eventually around 30 came into view. The numbers were vastly reduced from the 200 or so Rob had reported earlier in the week, but there were still more than I have ever seen before. Other birds we saw here included Redshank, Ringed Plover, Meadow Pipit and Swift as well as more Swallow.
Many thanks to Rob for taking me round and furthering my growing birding knowledge.
An online birding diary, photo album and scrapbook - it's not much but it keeps me amused
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