Trip reports

Tittesworth twitch

Sunday, 30 November 2008

Barry and Alan ( Leader and Treasurer of the group ) decided that the Spotted Sandpiper at not-too-distant Tittesworth Reservoir in North Staffordshire was too good to miss. Although we are not really twitchers it would be a great chance of a life tick for both of us. The morning of Sunday 30th November saw us in the car and away. It was bitterly cold and there was a serious ground frost. We just hoped that the bird was still there! For a few minutes we watched a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the nearby trees and sipped coffee from the flasks. Plenty of birders were arriving in the car park and many thousands of pounds worth of photography gear were on display. Alan decided that he could find a shortcut to the dam wall where the bird was last seen. The short cut was not really short and required commando style scrambling through mud, swathes of slippery leaves, bushes, puddles, bogs and ditches. To Barry, a 50 something ex-smoker it was a challenge..not to say a chance to exercise extensive knowledge of Anglo Saxon perjoratives! After climbing out of the third slimy ditch it was tempting to give up, but we had passed the point of no return and the journey back would have been worse than persevering. Eventually we came out at the dam wall and there before us was a gathering of thirty or so birders with binoculars, scopes and huge telephoto lenses all trained on this little bird. It was oblivious to the crowds, happily patrolling the foam line and picking up particles of food. Occasionally it flew to the other end of the dam wall but after a few minutes would return to its favoured spot near the outflow control building. With the bird only a few feet away it was a great chance to closely observe markings and characteristics. The yellow-ish legs and short tail were fairly obvious, wing markings less so in the dullish light. After almost an hour of observation we headed back, this time via the official ( and very easy ) footpath. All things considered we had a great morning, which we finished off with hot tea and cakes in the very civilised Visitor Centre.