It was mid-morning when news broke to us of a Spotted Crake at Swillington Ings. While I don’t really bother twitching so much anymore, this species, a British tick, being so close to home was quite tempting. However we waited for confirmation that it would not be a one-off sighting, and when news came through of the bird still showing, Lia and I made the journey across to Swillington.
Once there the crowd was actually pretty small, mainly from regulars
rather than any real gathering of twitchers. The bird itself was feeding in a
small lagoon with extensive muddy margins surrounded by Moorhen and Coot, with
a very dapper Black-tailed Godwit for company, just for good measure. It showed
extremely well, much better than the only other time I saw this species in
Germany when I was restricted to a single poor glimpse. Here the bird paraded
itself around, often without a care in the world, really allowing us to study
it.
After an hour of watching the Crake, we went for a walk around
the rest of the site. On the wader front, it was nice to see Greenshank, Ruff, and the aforementioned Black-tailed Godwit. There was a smart eclipse Garganey
tucked into the reeds, as well as a last Black-necked Grebe juvenile clinging
on. The areas grazed by cattle were alive with Yellow Wagtails, and we counted
19 in total. And then we had a brilliant encounter with a Bearded Tit male that
flew from the reeds and right at us before dropping back into the reedbed on
the opposite side of the path. Overall an absolutely brilliant afternoon out
with a British tick to boot.
Swillington Ings: Greylag Goose, Barnacle Goose, Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Garganey, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, Eurasian Teal, Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Water Rail, Spotted Crake, Common Moorhen, Eurasian Coot, Northern Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Common Snipe, Common Greenshank, Black-headed Gull, European Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Common Tern, Great Cormorant, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Eurasian Magpie, Carrion Crow, Eurasian Blue Tit, Great Tit, Bearded Reedling, Sedge Warbler, Eurasian Reed Warbler, Sand Martin, Barn Swallow, Common House Martin, Willow Warbler, Cetti's Warbler, Long-tailed Tit, Eurasian Wren, Common Starling, Western Yellow Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, European Greenfinch, Common Linnet, European Goldfinch, Common Reed Bunting,
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