Arctic Gulls and Shanks!

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 Arctic Gulls and Shanks!



We arrived at 7:30pm at RSPB Leighton Moss coastal hides (location pinned to post named 'Goosanders and Waders') in hopes of seeing a Sabine's Gull, which unfortunately had a missing right foot and presumably an injured left foot, that was reported earlier. We did go to the saltmarsh in the morning but sadly dipped it. When we arrived at Allen Hide (where the bird was last seen), we asked someone named Phil Rhodes who mentioned to us that he had been here for 20 minutes and didn't see it at all. He then told us about how the bird is being very random. It has sometimes been spotted on Causeway Pool, then it usually hangs out on Allen Pool, and then somewhere it goes somewhere within Morcambe Bay but we are yet to know where that is. After a while, Phil went to go check the Eric Morcambe Hide and soon after, the head of RSPB Leighton Moss, Jarrod, came in. After a while, he pointed out two Greenshanks as they flew in and landed in the only bit of water with a Common Sandpiper. They made a chink chink sort of call which helped us in spotting and identifying it. That was another tick. Soon after, Jarrod left and shortly after that, Phil came back without seeing the gull. He then mentioned to us that it was reported flying towards Jenny Brown's Point the other day but got lost in the heat haze. Phil then went to Jenny Brown's Point (location pinned to post) to check the coast along that road to see if it was roosting there. We waited another 20 minutes but decided to also check out Jenny Brown's Point and the coast along that road to see if the Sabine's Gull was present. When we arrived, Phil came running back saying he'd seen it from the viewpoint with the benches. He then said he went further along the road to get a closer look but the bird was in a dip so he couldn't view from that angle. He then came rushing back to the viewpoint that we were at and showed us the bird through his scope as it layed down. It then flew right and we could see the wing pattern as it flew before it finally came to a roosting spot straight in front of us and slept. An awesome evening twitch with two lifers!



Location: Silverdale, Carnforth LA5 0UA, UK

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