Mid-afternoon of the Migfest Sunday news broke of a Grey Phalarope at RSPB St Aidens/Swillington Ings. Since I would be returning along the M62 once I left Spurn I decided to make the small detour to try and see it. Fortunately, thanks to my passengers HC and MCN, I had an excuse to leave Spurn at 15:30 and so that would give us at best two hours to search the reserve before darkness. The storm had already arrived so the conditions were quite gloomy, but helpfully it meant the bird would surely not be leaving the site.
The last report came
from Astley Lake so we headed straight there but were unable to find the bird from
the first vantage point we searched from. A little concerned we headed to the
other side of the lake and from there we were relived we managed to pick up the
bird distantly feeding at the back of the lake. Sadly it never came close, but
it was a great bird to see inland in West Yorkshire. It was surprisingly elusive,
disappearing for extended periods, and this helped encourage us not to stick
around. That and the incoming rainfall.
Being Swillington
Ings there were obviously plenty of other birds, although with finite time we
did not have too much time to bird the site properly. A few Great Egrets were
nice to see, and the wader selection included Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper,
Dunlin and Ringed Plover. The 90 minutes were spent on site were very
enjoyable.
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