A cloudy but clear morning at Leeshaw on a light E>3 at 4 degrees. Full cloud throughout but good visibility though photography marred by heat shimmer even at the low temperature.
One of those long awaited extra special mornings with the first call I heard when getting out of the car was a Cuckoo across on the north hillside showing briefly on a wall top, once I had got the scope up on sticks.
Things looked reasonably quiet so a dog walk down to the beck and back by which time 9 LBB and 3 Herring gull were on the water with the usual Oystercatchers and Redshanks around as well as Curlews and Lapwings etc.
The Cuckoo had now gone quiet and not heard again throughout the watch whilst several Swallows headed >S into the breeze.
Whilst on the SW end of the track I scanned the shore through the bins and picked out a wader walking among the Canadas. It was a large looking light job and first thought was Greenshank, though wrong time of year for this area. A dash back to the scope behind the car and a surprise to find a winter plumaged Bar Tailed Godwit, a mega for this area, unlike the Black Tailed Godwit which are scarce but much more common.
It was suddenly flushed with a LBB gull and flew low over the wall and landed in a field alongside a Lapwing. This was a lucky move for me as I got the white V up its back, positively identifying it from a Black Tailed as the view on the shore was very iffy through the scope due to the distance and heat shimmer. It is also an early date for a species that usually moves in late May.
After a while it returned to the shore where it buried its head and went to sleep, where it remained till I left.
The last local sightings I have had of Bar Tailed Godwit were, 2/5/2011 at Fly Flatts where DJS got the same bird on the 5/5/2011. Then another single at TMR 3/11/2012 followed by a near miss dip on a bird found down Ten Yards Lane, Thornton, 6/10/2022, found by M.P.
An Easter Sunday to remember.
Another day of light easterlies in the morning with a rainy forecast and morning fog at 6 degrees.
BS