Burton Mere Wetlands 31st July 2021

We went back up to Burton Mere Wetlands to try – again! – to see the Long-billed Dowitcher that had been around since the 25th but when we got there, there were no reports of it to be seen anywhere so we had a look at the scrape and walked down to the barn. It was a case of the usual suspects, however, and not that many of them. We were reluctant to walk all the way down to the Border Hide if there were no reports of it having been seen. THe site was quite busy so there were lots of people looking for it. In the end, we didn’t get to see it so we were very disappointed but at least we got a year tick out of our visit.

While we were wondering whether to go somewhere else instead, a report came through of a pair of Ruddy Shelducks down at the Border Hide so we decided to trek down there to see them. They were pretty much the only bird of note there and there were quite a few disappointed birders who had really been looking forward to seeing the Dowitcher. Of course we ran into a couple of people who had seen it every day recently and we got shown some very nice pictures of the bird but, for us, it just wasn’t happening. Very disappointing as it would have been a life tick but we settled for the male and female Ruddy Shelduck which were actually quite attractive and still in a lot of breeding plumage.

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands 31st July 2021 2021