LESSER YELLOWLEGS 08-08-10

Sometimes you just never know what you're gonna get! My brother had to go over to Chester to pick up something for his wife, and he asked me if I fancied going along for a bit of company. He sweetened the deal by saying there was a nature reserve close by that we could pop into for an hour while there. So, with nothing better to do I agreed to go with him. After doing what he needed to do we made our way to the nature reserve - Inner Marsh Farm RSPB. Its somewhere I'd never even heard of never mind been to so had no idea what to expect. When we got to the visitor centre I had a look at the board to see what was around and one name immediately jumped out - LESSER YELLOWLEGS! Wow, this would be a British tick if I could see it. (I've seen them in Arizona and Tobago). I had a quick chat to the warden who told me it had been feeding outside the main hide on the morning but had since gone to a different pool, but it usually came back to the main pool in the evening (it had been there for a few days). So we got to the hide to see what was about and to wait to see if the Yellowlegs put in an appearence. There were lots of birds present; Redshank, Ruff, Black Tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Lapwing etc but no american waders. After about an hour and a half we were getting ready to leave when a bird flew in from the right and started feeding on the waters edge - BINGO! Lesser Yellowlegs in the bag, and giving exceptional views. We enjoyed it for about 30 minutes but time was getting late and we had to head back home. On the way back to the car park I spotted a GREEN SANDPIPER on a different pool. Like I say, sometimes its nice to go somewhere with absolutely no expectations!

LESSER YELLOWLEGS (above) GREEN SANDPIPER (below)