Leighton Moss and Martin Mere 29th August 2019

I had read that a Little Stint and a Green Sandpiper were both to be seen from the Eric Morecambe hide at RSPB Leighton Moss and, since the weather forecast was good, we decided to go up there and give it a shot. As it happened, we were wrong on both counts as the weather was heavy rain – not unusual for the sea hides at Leighton Moss. We didn’t see either of our target birds but the day was not entirely lost as we got some Curlew Sandpipers which was a good year tick for us.

Other than that, some Spotted Redshank, Greenshank and good numbers of Black-tailed Godwits were also plusses. However, the rain was a turn off so we decided to head home via WTT Martin Mere and have a go there.
We headed straight down to the Ron Barker Hide before any rain started and it was quite quiet down there. Of interest were a small group of unseasonable Pink-footed Geese and a Marsh Harrier.

Back down at the Raines Observatory we got a Green Sandpiper but there were very few birds of any sort around so it was a bit disappointing. A quick look around from the Discovery Hide turned up very little. With the afternoon getting on we headed back home. It would have been a bit disappointing but at least we got our year tick Curlew Sandpipers.