The Juvenile Birder

  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 plu...

Mammals, Mammals and Plovers When we arrived, we headed straight down towards the Ron Barker Hide. We were fixed in a certain spot. Out feeding on the lake were many waders including Northern Lapwings, Eurasian Oystercatchers and Pied Avocets. A few waterfowl including, Common Shelduck, Mallards and Eurasian Teals joined them. Presently, a WWT volunteer said he'd just seen a Common Kingfisher dive in the water and fly onto a branch before he lost it. We came over and waited in case it came back. Just then, another gentleman in the hide reported to us of a Roe Deer by the lake. A deer would be a stunning sight to see so I rushed over and there it was! The majestic stag drank along the water's edge though was somewhat hard to view due to the direction of the sun. I continued scanning until the head of a weasel popped up. I alerted everyone and we had our eyes glued to the bridge until it came. The tiny, yet fierce, predator was a Stoat. I ran across the bridge and jumped into som...