Today's 'specials' at Little Marlow Gravel Pits
8 Common Snipe, 5 COMMON SHELDUCKS, 1 Greylag Goose, 1 Egyptian Goose, 12 Teal and 3 EURASIAN CURLEW.A
As with yesterday though, events slightly different to 'normal' so for those that want the details, read on.
Arrived at car park somewhat earlier today (about 3.40) and met Andrew Taylor (a Bucks Bird Club member who I've not met before). I went straight to usual spot beside the seat and before I'd even got scope up I heard it ... a distinctive "curlew" followed by a fluidly trill. Got the bins on it just as it landed and folded wings. Pretty sure it was the female. Time 3.52. This is the first time I've heard one call and again behaviour slightly different because today it had landed in the centre (i.e. halfway between back shore and front shore) of the spit. It immediately began feeding vigorously, probing sandy soil of spit and I could see it was successfully digging out some kind of worm. Meanwhile scans of the rest of the spit had drawn a blank, but then after about 15 mins. picked up second- by which time Andrew had joined me. This was quite a distance from first bird but was behaving exactly the same - moving freely and probing. We continued to observe both, during which time we picked up the Snipe. Then at about 4.30 with light fading rapidly (dusk seemed to come much earlier today) the third bird was there beside the other two! We had both scanned spit numerous times and up until then it was definitely not there. The two later arrivals were the two smaller, darker birds (males), and neither of these had called when coming in (John Bowman)