Juvenile Caspian Gull? Siblyback

This Juvenile / 1st Winter reminded me of a Caspian Gull in structure and most I.D features .White headed with an all dark rather parallel sided bill , a rather 'snouty' appearance to the head, tertial pattern rather worn but solid dark at the bases ( look at the Herring Gull's tertial pattern behind. ) Quite clean underneath ( but is it clean enough?) and although you can't see this in the photo the undertail coverts where clean and not heavily barred . It looked rather contrasty when it put it's wings up and the nice black tail band with a clean white rump showed , I couldn't see the underwing which was annoying . I'm no Caspian expert , having claimed 5 birds in 12 years of serious gulling and I've never seen a juvenile in September so I'm kind of sitting on the fence for now, but any feedback would be appreciated...

Wader day

I had a bit of a lie in this morning after a manic 7 days of work but I managed to hit the road at 9am and start my wader mission! First stop was Davidstow Airfield , a little dissapointing considering the the fast moving weather front overnight and the fact the airfield looks spot on . I wasn't helped by dogwalkers mind ( you'd think they would find somewhere nicer to walk their dogs! ) . 8 Ringed Plover , 2 Ruff , 1 Dunlin , 1 Green Sandpiper , 39 Wheatear and a couple of White Wagtails was all I could find. 

I then carried on to Maer Lake , it's still looking very good there , although the water level has gone up a little . I spotted 5 Wigeon, 1 Shoveler, 2 Juvenile Garganey, 1 Little Egret, 1 Curlew, 17 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 3 Ruff and 2 Dunlin. Again not a bad list of birds but wader variety was average.

I cut across Bodmin Moor to Colliford and just like last week all the birds seemed to be feeding around the Loveney end of the reservoir,except for good numbers of gulls off of the dam. I spent two hours at Loveney and I was rewarded with another Yankee! A smart juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper , no photo's this time I'm afraid , I just couldn't line up my I phone and scope at the same time.... 

I also saw 1 European Golden Plover, 1 Lapwing, 10 Ringed Plover, 1 Ruff, 1 Sanderling, 4 Dunlin, 1 Greenshank, 1 Ad Yellow Legged Gull and a Kingfisher. 

My last place to visit was Siblyback, as I walked towards the Northern arm I met up with a friendly birding couple from Launceston who I see a few times each year and always have a nice chat with ( sorry I don't know your names!) . I pointed out a smart adult Yellow Legged Gull to them and they mentioned a Pectoral Sandpiper had also been seen here but had dissapeared. I had an incline that it couldn't be far away and decided to walk further along the shoreline so you can look up a channel that is hidden from view unless you walk past the hide here . Sure enough there was the Pec , another yankee for the day and a great way to finish things off . The only other things I noted were a Nuthatch in the car park and 6 Ringed Plover dotted about

Med Gulls and Sandwich Terns

An evening visit to Padstow with Pete tonight produced 31 Mediterranean Gulls , 26 Sandwich Terns , 12 Turnstone's and 1 Dunlin . We managed to read some colour rings so will post the details when we hear back about them...

Walmsley Sanctuary

It looks like tonight was our last work party for the summer at Walmsley , we have achieved a great amount and the new part of the reserve is really starting to take shape.... The diggers have been in the reserve for several weeks now and have started to create new ponds , scrapes and ditches. I am sure it will be a great success and will provide another type of habitat for what is already a great reserve. In between working we saw a Juvenile Garganey an Adult Spoonbill , 1 Curlew ,1 Snipe , 2 Black-tailed Godwits , 1 Green Sandpiper and 1 Kingfisher , I left my camera at home which will teach me! But hopefully a photo of the Spoonbill to come from Dave Thomas which I will post when it arrives...

Ruan Lanihorne - Wednesday 7th September

I took a chance and went to Ruan Lanihorne after work hoping that an Osprey might be there....
Sadly no such luck but on the rising tide there was a nice variety of waders including :
13 Ringed Plover , 197 Curlew ,4 Black-tailed Godwit, 21 Bar-tailed Godwit 1 Juv Curlew Sandpiper, 4 Dunlin, 5 Common Sandpiper, 1 Kingfisher and a Tawny Owl calling at dusk.

Buff breasted Sandpiper at Colliford

After a manic day at work I decided to have a quick look at Colliford Reservoir this evening as it looked so good there last week . Starting at the Loveney reserve as soon as I got out of the car I could hear waders so I started to walk down to the shoreline checking as I went . There really was a cracking variety of waders on the shoreline and in the hour and a half before sunset I picked up 11 species including this little beauty :

                                                   
 A Buff Breasted Sandpiper! My favorite wader is always a pleasure to see and even more special to find . Note the small size in comparison to the Dunlin and Ringed Plover , the plain faced appearance , yellow legs and also in the field its characteristic busy feeding style , they almost look like clockwork toys as they busily rush about . This was in fact the 7th Buff Breasted Sandpiper I have seen at Colliford down the years so it really is a great spot for this scarce American species . I also saw 1 European Golden Plover, 28 Lapwing , 9 Common Ringed Plover, 2 Curlew, 1 Ruff , 4 Dunlin, 6 Common Snipe, 1 Green Sandpiper and 1 Greenshank.  Not a bad way to spend an evening...

Par

A quick look at Par after work produced 2 Sandwich Tern , 6 Ringed Plover , 1 Sanderling and 1 Turnstone...