Stints, Sandpipers and Yellow Wagtail Subspecies!

 Stints, Sandpipers and Yellow Wagtail Subspecies!

We arrived at 8:30am at RSPB Marshside (location pinned to Wader Fest blog post). We headed straight to Sandgrounder's Hide where for a Little Stint reported. When we arrived, we had gotten word that it had gone into the vegetation. However, Lesser Scaup and Little Ringed Plover were in abundance. Presently, someone let me use there scope. I scanned the banks until I found a flock of small waders. While at first I thought all three of them were just Dunlin, upon closer examination I managed to spot a Little Stint. It was much smaller and lighter in colour in comparison to the Dunlin. A new tick, and target species! While we were viewing the stint, someone told us about two Curlew Sandpiper he'd seen on Junction Pool before getting here. We walked straight there and met a man who let us look through his scope, pointed at two Curlew Sandpipers as they came in and out of the vegetation. Surprisingly, they were still in winter plumage this late. We then went to RSPB Hesketh Out Marsh (location pinned) for a reported Blue-Headed Wagtail. We first went to a viewing platform on the left of the car park. We watched an Arctic Tern swoop and fish over the lake. We then met the man who reported the wagtail and he said to walk back out to the road and take the trail behind the farmhouse and then past two planted fields on your right to view the potato fields where the Yellow Wagtails nest. He said there was a Blue-Headed and a Channel Wagtail. When we arrived, we spotted multiple Yellow Wagtails flying and perching on top of the plants. I then scanned until I spotted the Blue-Headed Wagtail as it perched and called on top of the potato plant. It then went down into the soil and out of view. A partial tick and a brilliant end to the day!