Yesterday afternoon I picked up a phone message from a group of visitors, birding at the ARC site, saying that they thought that they were looking at a spur-winged plover. Matt went over there about ten minutes after the message was left but could see no sign of the bird or the visitors! So, if you are one of those visitors and you're reading this please could you drop us a line with more details...
Today started on a high with a group of three honey buzzards flying north-west over the reserve. These were followed a little later by a single bird heading in the same direction.
At the ARC site it was business as usual with 230+ golden plovers, 12 dunlin and a little stint present along with a couple of hundred lapwing. After a while a flock of about 40 knot appeared, followed by two smaller flocks making about 80 birds in total.
Elsewhere on the reserve the cattle egret was still near Boulderwall Farm, the great white was on Denge Marsh, a hobby was over Hooker's pits and about 30 yellow wagtails were in the cattle field near Christmas Dell. A second little stint was seen from Makepeace hide and five pintails (the first of the autumn) were also seen.