WAREHAM GRAVEL PITS, STILT POOL MARSH - LYCHETT FIELDS RSPB RESERVE
WEATHER: dull and overcast for most of the day, some brighter spells. Light rain during late afternoon
Dawn and I set out at 9:30am and drove south towards Dorchester, our plan was to visit the Marshes around Wareham and then to make a short visit to Lychett Fileds near Lychett Mattravers, but first of all we made a very short stop at Lankham Bottom. I wanted Dawn to see the beautiful scenery at this superb butterfly reserve.
Once on the path along the top of the south-facing escarpement at Lankham I had a nice surprise when a Whinchat appeared on top of some gorse, nice find. I also saw a couple of Bullfinches, a Yellowhammer, Stonechat and a few Linnets.
It was around 11am when we arrived at Wareham, we parked the car and began our walk onto the marshes. Through a hedge we had views of the lake in the gravel pit and saw Coot, Tufted Duck, Teal, Common Pochard, Gadwall, Mallard and Mute Swan.
The Wigeon and the Swan
Once on the marsh we viewed the small flooded area called Stilt Pool, this is the place where two Pectoral Sandpipers have spent a couple of weeks frequenting. The Sandpipers have now gone but we saw two Cattle Egrets, a Little Egret, Green Sandpiper, Wigeon and Teal.
Cattle Egret - this the furthest I have seen one away from the Somerset Levels
record shot of the Green Sandpiper at Stilt Pool
We walked further along the marsh and through some woodland to get back to the car, along the way we sat and ate our picnic lunch. During lunch we saw Goldcrest, Nuthatch, Jay, Pied Wagtail, Common Buzzard and several common woodland birds.
We arrived at Lychett Fields around 3pm, the tide had turned and was on the way out, this is a view of one of the marshes.
We were hoping to find a WOOD SANDPIPER and maybe a few Curlew Sandpipers but niether of them was there. We did find Redshank, Greenshank and Spotted Redshank, we also saw Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit and lots of Teal.
Black-tailed Godwits
Spotted Redshank with a sleeping Black-tailed Godwit and some Teal