Sutton Bingham - Sun 19 Sep

A few visits during the last couple of days had failed to produce much, but a couple of Wheatears on 15 September were big brutes and are surely good candidates for Greenland Wheatear.

A little bit of wader excitement today though as I initially missed a call, whilst I was in church, from Pete Akers this morning telling me of a Spotted Redshank at the southern end of the reservoir, hasten to say as soon as the service was over I hot-footed it to Sutton Bingham, family in tow, to try and see the bird...and see it I did! It really was rather distant, feeding in the muddy area in the far southern corner. It's been a few years since my last patch Spotted Redshank. Herewith the obligatory record shots.

It wasn't all good news though, as despite seeing the Spotted Redshank I missed a Water Rail that had been seen briefly a few times in a similar area (and a two hour return visit later in the evening also failed to find this much-needed patch year tick).

There were also a couple of Green Sandpipers today and I got up to four Common Sandpipers across the site. A lone Teal was off the dam in the evening whilst earlier in the day the first Wigeon of the "Winter" was present. A Tufted Duck was still at the southern end and appeared to have either a damaged or pinioned right wing...which may explain why it's still here. Finally, as evening set in three flocks of Mandarin flew in, totalling eighteen birds, and the three Little Grebes were still about.

Sutton Bingham year list for 2021 now at 111 species.