Sunday 29th August 2010 - Grimley and Upton Warren

This afternoon I returned to Grimley, with my better half in tow, to see the Little Gull again. The bird was again present and showing well, although not quite as close as on my previous visit. Also present were the 2 Greenshank, 3 Little Egrets and 2 Common Terns. The highlight of the visit though was at 1pm when a Hobby drifted NW over the new workings and landed in a tree on the edge of the wood just West of the main pit, giving pretty good scope views.

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Early evening I received news that a flock of 8 Curlew Sandpipers had dropped in at Upton Warren flashes. Curlew Sandpiper is an increasingly scarce passage wader in Worcestershire so I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to see these birds. Myself and TS quickly travelled the 10 miles down the road to Upton Warren and got reasonable, but slighlty distant, views of these birds which were towards the rear of the flash. After about 10 minutes of observing the birds they flew of in a South West direction. Also seen during our visit were 2 Green Sandpipers, 2 Common Sandpipers and a Common Snipe.

A short record video of the Curlew Sandpipers can be seen by clicking on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuOLZyVVhUg

Curlew Sandpipers - Upton Warren, 29/08/10: