10/10/2015 Twitching! Long -billed Dowitcher.

Saturday10th October 2015
Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marshes, Hampshire

I finally found time to travel to Hampshire to twitch the Long-billed Dowitcher at Pennigton Marshes.  The weather was just right with dry, clear conditions and little or no wind.

• Just as I got there, at 13.30, most of the birds on the water took to the air - something had obviously spooked them.  A group of 30 or so birders had been watching the Dowitcher but it had disappeared in the large flying group.  Just my luck - 10 minutes earlier and I would have had excellent views.

• Not to worry because I stayed when all the others departed, waiting for the bird's return.  It took over 90 minutes of patience and diligent birding but I finally got my reward when just on 15.00  the star bird showed 100 metres in front of me.  It was busy feeding so I watched it for fully 5 minutes before it swam away and entered the vegetation in the lagoon and disappeared again.

Long-billed Dowitcher
Courtesy of D.K. @aves_bird

• This was my second twitch of the week.  Last Sunday I "dipped" on the Wilson's Phalarope at Vange in Essex - this time I was a day late and the bird had left.

Well worth the effort!

 

 

 

 

 

Addition to BUBO UK Life List of Birds:

 

Long-billed Dowitcher   (306)

 

 

 

Addition to BUBO UK 2015 List of Birds:

 

Long-billed Dowitcher   (266)




Biology 

• The birds, which hail from North America, often reach Western European coasts during their migration. 

• Every year those sorts of birds are migrating so they're going from north down to the south.  

• Depending on the seasons they bump into various different weather patterns.  It's very easy for a bird to get shifted... if it made its trajectory just a couple of degrees off, over several thousand miles that could throw it a long way out of its range.