A wet and interesting morning

As I left the house at 06:15 it was hardly raining at all, but by the time I got to LFGP, it got heavier and heavier. I scanned and scanned for a Whinchat, but none to be found.

A Green Sandpiper fed in front of the hide, a Common Sandpiper flicked around and landed on one of the small rafts. With the SW corner islets, under water there were no waders there, well nothing there at all.

Most of the Lapwing were half hidden behind the lake edge vegetation and I didn't scan through them thoroughly, but did find 2 Wigeon on the NE corner lake edge.

A kept waiting for window in the weather, to leave and at one point it got very black and suddenly the rain stopped. I had been glancing at the feeders and had already collapsed my tripod and covered my scope, then closed the front flap. Taking one last glance at the feeders, I sensed a sudden commotion and noticed the Lapwing flock over the North spit in a state of panic, but suddenly heard a call and picked up a fast moving, smallish wader moving away very fast.

I knew I had no time to get my scope out, so stayed on it....it had a very fast wing beats and as it turned, or more like jerked left and right I could see it had long, slender and very pointed wings, but no wing bars, no trailing legs and whilst I didn't see the bill clearly, it was fairly short, like a Golden Plover.

The call was repeated 4-5 times and even though it was going away the whole time, it was quite clear and a little like a Ringed Plover, but less pronounced.

I thought, "Good grief I should know this, especially when a wader calls". I can say it wasn't a Golden or Grey Plover and it was too big for Ringed Plover. What does that leave?....not much when you just didn't get enough on it. Something good I feel and having listened to wader calls on Xeno Canto, the nearest match was Dotterel, which would be a first for the park. But I doubt they move this early and as with other 'not quite clinched birds' "I just have to let it go".

I curse that I had shut the front lap and my scope up, barely 30 seconds before and I almost certainly would have clinched it.

I went round to BSL and heard a Redshank immediately, but never saw that. A quick circuit of the sailing club car park area and 1 Spotted Flycatcher later I headed to the car park field, but with the rain now setting in again, nothing was showing.

Geoff texted around 11:45 to say a Bittern had just flown in to the reeds to the left of Ron's Hide, a wonderful last species to add to August's total, finishing on 104....assuming no-one finds something new before dusk tonight.