Two More New Wader Species!

Following on from the Jack Snipe at the start of the month I managed to add another two species to my Bishop Middleham list this evening and both, as the blog title alludes, were waders.
An excellent find by Joe Hughes and a long awaited first site record for Castle Lake was this Sanderling partially moulting into summer plumage.

many thanks to Paul Hindess for the tip-off.

The A1 flashes are living up to the name for a nice change and 10 Whimbrel were taking advantage.

BM list #151 Sanderling
BM list #152 Whimbrel

White Stork

Apologies for the lack of blog updates in recent weeks, blame the start of the cricket season!
Anyhow many thanks to John Olley, Colin Wilson and Steve Evans for telling me about todays White Stork on the A1 Flashes this morning, apparently a ringed bird of dubious origin and the strange co-incidence of its appearance exactly five years to the day when I made my first ever visit to Bishop Middleham to see one.
Unfortunately I couldn't get down to see todays visitor, so heres some Wheatear pictures from last week instead.

Just A Linnet

Quite a few Linnet around now including these below the Castle Lake hide this morning;

Also saw my first Willow Warbler of the year, this being one of the four that were singing at Fishburn Lake.

Jack In The Box

I always like the idea of birding in bad weather, especially if you can sit it out in a hide. This afternoon the strong north-easterly wind was blowing the heavy sleet horizontal and the hide was threatening to lift off its base.
Fortunately some excellent birds kept my mind off the weather, including my 150th species for Bishop Middleham - a Jack Snipe put in an unexpected and presumably weather related appearance feeding in fairly un-typical habitat at the edge of one of the Islands with a Common Snipe for company, offering a good size comparison. Poor picture below of it partially obscured by a rock.

Other highlights were 3 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Green Sandpiper and incredibley given the weather 2 Sand Martin battling into the teeth of the gale.

LRP

RP