With January shortly drawing to a close leaving just the short month of February to get through we,ll soon be on the lookout for passage waders at our reservoirs. Of course it all depends on the amount of shoreline showing as to how long birds stay,hopefully it will be like 2010 when good amounts of shoreline were available throughout the season, otherwise its just a matter of the right place at the right time.
February is a good time to get out that wader id book and brush up on the birds that we get little experience on, which covers most of the waders, also listen to the dvds etc so that you can pick out birds in flight, thats easier said than done. My hearing is not what it used to be and if I get a call I usually look in the opposite direction!
Waders to me can be one of the hardest species to id but one of the most rewarding to turn up. If they only stuck to the text books and came through dressed in the plumage that they are suppose to it would make a birders life a lot easier.
You,ll all have your favourite local reservoirs , my most productive being, through previous years, the Oxenhope private reservoir and home of the DCB/HC vis miggers for which I have just rejoined B.O.G. so hope to give that some use this year, and Fly Flatts which is very hit and miss but Ive found that if you stick at it up there and dont mind a lot of disappointing mornings, it can produce the goods.
Ive a personal species list for Fly Flatts over the last 15 years of 103 and these are the waders Ive recorded up there in those years :-
Oystercatcher
Golden Plover
Lapwing
Knot
Dunlin
Jack Snipe
Common Snipe
Curlew
Redshank
Greenshank
Little Ringed Plover
Ringed Plover
Common Sandpiper
Turnstone
note, one of the Greenshank was in December 2007.
BS
