Sunday 17 August 2008

Sunday 17th August

Uttoxeter Quarry, 13:15 - 15:00

2 Green Sandpiper, 4 Common Sandpiper, 1 Little Ringed Plover (getting late for these now), 5 Curlew, 7 Oystercatcher, 9 Goosander.

Blithfield Reservoir, 15:45 - 18:30

A classic Blithfield day today. 1 Little Stint, 5 Knot, 5 Black-Tailed Godwit, 3 Greenshank, 1 Ruff, 39 Ringed Plover, 25 Dunlin, 43 Black Tern, 3 Garganey, 2 Osprey, 2 Peregrine, 1 Raven, 4 Wheatear.

On arrival at the causeway I was also informed of 3 Wood Sandpipers seen in the morning, but then left, and had not been mentioned on the information networks that morning. Now there may be perfectly valid reasons for it. However, if people want to suppress sightings then that's their perogative, I'm not going to tell anyone what to do. But whenever I come across this, two thoughts always enter my head:

1. Devil's Advocate would suggest the claim is cobblers, especially as it was not mentioned in the Tad Bay book.

2. I'm sure they were there, but this kind of situation makes me more determined to make my sightings available to the information providers as soon as I can. Within reason of course, rare nesting birds are an obvious exception.

Just another general thought of the day. In today's economic climate of rising metal prices, with the demand from China. And with stories of metal being nicked, melted down and sent to China, is it wise to leave large metal objects lying around?

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