Saturday 2nd October 2010

A quiet day in Staffordshire today, and I was on my own for the first time in ages. First stop was at Belvide for the juv Black Tern and two of the three Scaup that were present. I also had an interesting chat with Staffordshire birding folk hero Bernie Smith. He spent nearly half an hour listing all the excuses as to why he hadn't walked up Blakeney Point last weekend. I then moved onto the East Staffs gravel pits, where i had a Common Sandpiper, a Pintail, an adult Yellow-legged Gull and a fine count of 51 Goosander.
No photo's today so I have decided to re-visit 2nd October 2004. An excellent days birding with PJ, RS and GAS and a day trip to the Scilly Isles. It was to be one of the best Octobers of the decade with five ticks in all including stunners such as Ovenbird, Masked Shrike, Western Sandpiper and of course the Cream-coloured Courser. It was a beautiful day, and the Courser showed extremely well on St Martins. It was in a far healthier state here than it was when it relocated onto the golf course on St Mary's later in its stay.