On the afternoon of 21st September I was driving along the A30 past Poole and was aware that the Lodmoor Stilt Sandpiper and been relocated at Lytchett Bay, being only 25 minutes off route I couldn't resist popping in (information on birding the area can be found
here). Parking on Seaview Road I walked down Slough Lane and scanned the pool just off the bottom of the lane. There was no sign of the bird here but there were two
Green Sandpiper, a
Greenshank and six
Black-tailed Godwit. I wandered on to French's Pool where three birders were gathered and they reported no sign of the Stilt Sandpiper. I set-up my scope and scanned the flooded meadows here seeing
Black-tailed Godwit (25),
Greenshank (10),
Dunlin 175 and
Teal (75) with a
Peregrine flying through. In the closest flock of Dunlin were three
Little Stint and two
Curlew Sandpiper and I enjoyed good views of these, my first of the Autumn. News then broke that the Stilt Sandpiper was on the pool on Slough Lane so the assembled birders (now eight) paced back to the pool where the
Stilt Sandpiper was quickly located feeding amongst
Lapwing, but no sooner had I got my scope on it when it took flight and flew around the pool before settling again. I again just got the bird in my scope when it took flight this time heading east and seemingly settling in the salt marsh. This was the last time the bird was seen and it has not been reported subsequently at this site. We scanned the pools where two
Ruff and four
Green Sandpiper plus a
Marsh Harrier were present and then I decided to head off. I was somewhat disappointed with my views of the Stilt Sandpiper, while I saw it briefly I did not get a chance to study the plumage of this juvenile bird, the first I recall seeing of this plumage, and certainly didn't get a chance for any photographs. There have been 33 accepted British records of Stilt Sandpiper with an additional 16 in Ireland, of these only eight were juvenile, this age is genuinely a rare bird in the UK.
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper - French's Pool, Lychett Bay, Dorset
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper - French's Pool, Lychett Bay, Dorset
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper - French's Pool, Lychett Bay, Dorset
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper - French's Pool, Lychett Bay, Dorset
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper - French's Pool, Lychett Bay, Dorset
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper - French's Pool, Lychett Bay, Dorset
On 22nd September I spent a couple of hours after dropping Tobias off at school at Pennington Marsh. It was pretty slow going with 32 Tufted Duck now on Efford Lagoon, 17 Pintail, 75 Sand Martin, 50 Swallow, two Spotted Redshank, two Yellow Wagtail and one Sandwich Tern amongst the usual selection of common waders and wildfowl.
