Fill those Wading Boots, Part 3, BWR 7th August

...continuing on from Fill those Wading Boots, Part 2...

The Tuesday afternoon was warm and sunny and I'd finished work early (again) so I dragged Mrs Caley down to the local Wetlands in the hope that a Wood Sandpiper had found the place. No such luck, of course, but there were still the other birds around. The main scrape was very quiet, apart from a large flock of 63 Canada Geese, but there was much more action at the Cattle Bridge Pool where the Greenshank was still holding court. Alan the warden had seen 3 Greenshank on Monday but now just this bird remained and it was definitely the same one from Saturday since it was still startled every time a train came past. The Greenshank kept to the same pattern as before too, travelling around the pool in a clockwise fashion until arriving in front of the hide and then flying back to the far corner once it had preened.

"running away from a train"

There were now 5 Common Snipe feeding in the mud and they showed well mostly out in the open but did retreat back to a lone tussock at times when a preening session was called for. Hopefully the water level will stay low enough in the winter period for the mud to attract one of the wintering Jack Snipe out into the open.

We counted no fewer than 10 Green Sandpipers, up from the 6 of Saturday but still short of my own site record of 21! Most stayed well over the far side but one came a bit closer in tandem with a Common Sandpiper enabling a nice comparison to be made.

Green Sandpiper, front, Common Sandpiper, back

Green Sandpiper, left, Common Snipe, right

The Greenshank once again captured our attention again as it was nearing the hide. Although not a rare bird, we don't get that many in Oxfordshire and this was the first one of the year at BWR,  I was quite happy to watch it feed, run away from trains, stretch and preen, and took far too many photos. 

It had been an enjoyable hour or so and just as we left the Canada Goose flock flew off in the direction of Otmoor. I snapped a couple of quick shots and was pleased with the composition of a couple of them (although they weren't deemed good enough for any merit in the Birdguides weekly Photo competition).