Knock on Wood

Magical late afternoon walk across Burwell Fen.  Waders in abundance, often showing well and in great light.  At one point I counted 14 Wood Sandpipers and there were likely to have been more, 6 Green Sandpiper were outnumbered as was the lone, bobbing, Common Sandpiper.  A Spotted Redshank picked through the vegetation and 4 Whimbrel flew over agitating a rather panicky seven whistles as they travelled South.

 There were lots of Ringed Plover picking over the mud and Dunlin joined their feeding troop.  a smart juvenile Little Stint joined them and a party of Black Tailed Godwit flew over. 

Having filled my boots on waders I decided to look at the Lazy Otter floods to see if any gulls were visiting.  It turns out that they are not and the high water level, maintained through pumping, is not leaving much mud for waders either.  However 2 Wood Sands, a Ruff and a Dunlin squeezed themselves onto a metre of mud on the peninsular. 

As the sun dropped an pinked the sky, there was movement on the Old West River as a pair of Great Crested Grebes were feeding young, I guess from a second brood, and one was still catching a ride on it's parents back.