Bonanza

Another stunning day at Connah’s Quay, with approximately 10,000 waders roosting on Oakenholt Marsh plus a pair of touring North American waders thrown in for good measure.

The omens were good on arrival as a huge flock of Black-tailed Godwits could be seen milling in front of Flint castle soon to be joined by hundreds of Oystercatchers, Knot, Dunlin and Redshank piling in from various points of the estuary.

The gathering was at its most spectacular when a scouting male Peregrine flushed the birds into the air causing them to twist and pulsate in a manner more resembling a school of panicked sardines than a flock of waders.

A pair of sharp eyes in the form of Geoff Robinson then picked-out the bright white breasts of eleven Spotted Redshanks gleaming in the morning sunshine in a channel towards Flint. Largely absent from in front of the West Hide this autumn it was good to see that the Spot Reds are have returned again this winter albeit to another area of the marsh.

Plenty of wildfowl around too, with a flotilla of circa eight hundred Pintails on the edge of Gayton Sands and closer to home a respectable group of six hundred Teal were dabbling at the end of the stream outflow including one extremely rusty-coloured female.

When the tide finally consumed the lion’s share of the marsh I upped sticks and headed to Inner Marsh only to receive a text from Stan Skelton informing me that two Long-billed Dowitchers were on the bunded pools back at Connah’s Quay.

Cursing my laziness for not checking the pools in the first place I headed back to Flintshire to find them feeding away contentedly in the company of some Redshank, four dozing Greenshank and yet two more Spot Reds taking the tally to an ‘unlucky’ thirteen.

I am always curious – as I’m sure many of my fellow birders are – as to whether I would find these birds if I had had no prior knowledge of their presence. I’d like to think so in my more vain moments, but given the rarest bird I have ever found in a Spoonbill (hardly inconspicuous), I’m not so sure!

Adios y buenes noches.