Trip reports

Bowling Green Marsh - 15 January 2008

Sunday, 20 January 2008

Led by Stuart Hill, twelve members set off on a stormy and wet morning but were rewarded for their efforts when the weather cleared up, and there were even brief glimpses of the sun.
Setting up in the hide, the view across splash meadow and large areas of water was that of a milling throng of birds. Wildfowl species present included wigeon, teal, shoveler, good numbers of pintail, mallard, tufted duck, pochard and shelduck.
The amount of waders present was outstanding and a rough count revealed something like 150 avocets, over 400 black-tailed godwits, at least 30 bar-tailed godwits, about 460 dunlin, plus numbers of curlew, snipe, redshank and a single knot.
Other species noted included little egret and little grebe, but the star of the day that was eventually picked out after a great deal of searching was the long-billed dowitcher that has been drawing birders to Bowling Green Marsh for several weeks now.
A migrant all the way from America, the long-billed dowitcher breeds in Alaska and the adjacent Canada as well as in eastern Siberia. The North American population forms large migrating flocks and embarks on a great circle route to South America. The route takes them right across North America to the Atlantic seaboard south of New York. Often the large flocks travel well out over the ocean and, inevitably, are caught up in the high jetstream and find themselves all the way across the Atlantic in Europe.
Said to replace the godwits in Europe, long-billed dowitchers are rotund birds with long straight snipe-like bills and white on the tail and rump that extends in a 'V' up the back, similar to a greenshank. This was a wonderful bird to see and showed quite well once it was spotted on a grassy bank in front of the lake.
The party then moved on to the observation platform overlooking the Clyst estuary and an extremely high tide. There they found more avocets, some grey plover and a large group of brent geese that often took flight and were very vocal.
By this time the rain had arrived as the party made its way up the Goat Walk where two male mergansers were spotted and a common sandpiper added to a splendid total of sixty species for the day.