Watt Tyler Park Today

[Guest MOB Snr]

I know nothing about birds.

 

Two blokes lying on the floor way off to the west in the mud, I asked them what they were doing, I must say I was a little concerned, blokes in bushes and all that.

 

They went on to show me a little bird they have been watching for a while, it looked fairly ordinary to me they said it was a Pectoral Sandpiper, to be honest it looked like a little brown bird withn yellow legs.

 

 

They were so excited, I just dont get it, thes blokes followed the birds from Chichester?????

[Ian_W]

Twitchers and photographers of birds will travel the world to see rare birds

[Eastside Urchin]

lol,welcome to the dark side MOB,if they were indeed looking for a pectoral sandpiper then this is the behaviour of the strangus twitcherus (latin for twitcher)

Not a common bird on these shores and not one that the Essex birders have even reported so a good coup if you saw it mate.

In fact,that beats my bird of the year you jammy git.

Reminds me of the time i took my best mate carp fishing,lent him all my gear,cast him out,put the bait on,2 mins later he lands the 4th best carp ever caught in essex,a 45 pound common carp.

A few years ago!!! at snake pit

[Big J R]

Should have looked like this.

 

[Dagger03]

JR - the picture you have displayed is that of a male in summer plumage.

 

The legs are decribed in Hume as yellow, but in Jonsson they are described as greenish buff to clay coloured - I would not expect one to have obviously yellow legs.

 

The last one reported on the SOG was in Sept 05 and this was a juvenile at Vange marsh. Most of the earlier sightings are at reservoirs. The only one I have seen was at Welney WWT and this was in a very large group of other roosting birds, but was relatively easy to pick out as it was the only one feeding.

 

MOB - why should they be lying on the floor? It could not have been to avoid scaring the bird, as you were standing up and would therefore have scared it off right away had that been the case.

[Guest MOB Snr]

I think they were laying on the floor because they had been there for hours, there is a natural incline, people often lay there. I must say I was not impressed by the bird it looked dowdier than the above picture.

 

I gotta say Im not now hooked, I saw a much more interesting site on some waste land at Charfleets, I saw a hawk (dont know what sort) hovering swoop on a mouse and feed it still wriggling to it chicks. Three swoops resulted in two mice, awesome!!