Wood Sandpiper

I had a frustrating start to the day. I have been watching a Little Owl, I needed to work out where it was perching so I could place the camera pre focused and ready to film when and if the bird arrived. I checked the equipment before leaving home at four in the morning and set up. As a day flying Owl, and a small one, twenty three centimetres high (that's Eight to nine Inches), the camera needed to be close. Even with a decent zoom, to get a decent portrait I needed to have the camera seven metres closer than the cover I had to hide myself in. While the bird is not disturbed by the Farmer on whose land the bird is utilising, it is disturbed by other humans, and this Wood Mouse.

So I waited for five and half hours and finally the owl turned up. I pressed the record button on the remote control and I should have filmed some great footage. Not only it perching on one of the posts it uses, but returning three times with beetles and feeding. Even with the long life Battery on the Camera, it reached the point where even this was likely to have exhausted. Even knowing that was likely, I kept stopping and starting the recording when the bird returned. I had to wait until the bird moved off to finally retrieve the camera. So it was half eleven before I was able to take the camera home, and connected to the mains charger, I started to review the footage. Not a thing had recorded. It turned out that the batteries in the remote controller had died. So while I personally got some great views, I had got nothing on tape.

While this was a disappointment, I still had other things to do. Not least was a trip into Newcastle. I used the opportunity to get some veg from Grainger Market as well as some more of the specialist coffees I indulge myself with. I am pleased to see that many shops are now not just handing out plastic bags like sweets. However, this did cause me a problem as I also bought some marrow bones. While I had taken my own cloth bag as well, I needed a plastic bag to use as a barrier bag to stop cross contamination. So while part of the lesson has been learnt, there needs to be some common sense applied to this too.

On the way home I was aware that I had started to emit an odour of stale sweat. Perhaps it is because of my watching, or trying to, mammals that I am aware of just how much humans can smell. Therefore I sat well away from anyone as I did not want to offend anyone. Then a couple of stops latter someone else got on and as the air moved through the open windows on the bus my nose was assaulted by the smell not of stale sweat but something that her best friend should have told her. She must have been aware of this as she got out a deodorant in an attempt to mask this. It was one of the few times that I wished the journey was not a hour long. I did see three Red Kites on the journey home though.

While it was late afternoon before I got back home, I went for a wash before I did anything else. Much to the cats disgust as she wanted to be fed. I told her I had fed her last week. Then I set about making some stock from the marrow bones and prepare the braising steak for a slow cook in wine. While I may not get to the pub that often, my food could get me just as merry!

With my dinner slowly cooking in the oven, I went down to the river to see what was about. I got some reasonably good footage of Pied Wagtails and Grey Wagtails. I also saw Dippers, but the little buggers would not cooperate to become stars of You Tube.

As I was on the bridge filming, this old chap came along with his dog. His opening greeting was that I would never see otters here. As it is now summer I am aware that is true, but I keep my eyes open as the unexpected can happen. Well after we had been talking for about half an hour, well he was doing most of the talking, I spotted a small trout in the river almost under the bridge. I pointed this out to him. As we were looking a Dog Otter grabbed the trout. A couple of expletives latter, we lost sight of the mammal. I spent the next hour scanning the river, looking under the bridge too, but I could not find him.

Disappointed not to have found the otter again I made my way to where the Sand Martins are nesting, and tried to film them coming and going, I think I had some success there. I also tried to film the trout who were leaping. While I think I filmed some splashes, I will need to load the footage onto the computer and slow the footage down to see if I actually caught the Trout. To add to the frustrations of the day, I had a trout rising and leaping six feet from where I was on the bank. I tried to film this one and for half an hour I tried to follow the flies that the trout was feeding on. But not once did it rise. As this requires a great deal of concentration, I took a break to stretch my legs. That trout must have known as the moment I moved, it jumped twice in as many minutes.

I really thought that it was time to call it a day. So I was walking along the river towards the bus stop. It is not that far home from there, a mile no more, but up hill, five hundred feet of elevation. When there as the bus stop and route terminus, I heard a strange call. I spotted the bird that was calling and it was a plover type. I stopped and filmed it, recording the call too, this was going to be helpful as I was confused by what I was seeing. It looked like a sandpiper but the legs looked the wrong colour, they were paler than I would have expected. So I wondered if it was a Greenshank, but it was to small. I was able to film for several minutes and got some great footage, but I really could not make a positive identification. When the bus arrived I still had time to film a bit more as I wanted to be sure I got clear footage of the details needed for identification.

As the bus driver was interested we talked for a bit too and had I had time I could have filmed a sub adult Grey wagtail that appeared right by the bus stand.

After a nice meal, coffee and the regulation cuddle from the cat, I finally was able to look at the tape and with a field guide in hand, I realised why I could not identify the bird as it is genuinely rare. A wood Sandpiper.

While the day has been full of minor frustrations, it ended with a real delight.