Venus Pool - Black tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwits have been hard to come by at VP this year. The April 7th bird was a stunning summer plumage bird whilst today's was a drab grey winter plumage job. 

Attracting a crowd however...

The Geese couldn't were certainly curious!

Oh well, winter here we come!!

Venus Pool - Black-tailed Godwit

I was sat with Simon Twigger checking out Venus Pool from the Memorial Hide, we were exchanging moans that the strong winds hadn't brought any waders or Terns in!! Suddenly, Simon exclaimed "Erm Jim, there's a Godwit on the island right in front of us"! 

It had either just dropped in or had been resting out of view? Whatever, the next 15 minutes gave lots of photo opportunities of a smart male Islandica Black-tailed Godwit!

It was soon feeding

Preening...

Feeding again!

Then washing!

And giving a final pose...

As is took off and continued it's stay in front of the main hide (in and out of view)

OK, I got the wader but where's the Tern??  Watch this space?

Venus Pool - Black tailed Godwit invasion

It was early afternoon and something extraordinary was brewing at Venus Pool as Simon Twigger put the news out that a huge flock of 300+? Black-tailed Godwits had just dropped in...

I hightailed it over immediately and this was the sight that welcomed me!!

I quickly realised that 700mm of long lens (see below) were never going to tell the story so downsized to my 100-400m zoom lens!

Even then, to try and get them all in the frame was night on impossible?

An antisocial Crow added flight to the spectacle and there were three or four practice departures...

They always seemed to drift back!

Eventually, just after 4pm  a more determined departure seemed to be in the 'offing' :-)

I'd managed to keep up with the departing Godwits so that they were all (hopefully) in the field of view'. I printed out this image and using a highlighter once each bird was ticked (to avoid duplication) eventually got a total of 285!

I sent the image top Tom Lowe, hoping I'd missed some and steer the count towards 300? Proving how good this method worked however, Tom got exactly the same count of 285. And a much neater result by doing his count on screen!  Thanks Tom!

To put counts into perspective, the previous highest tally was 68 on 11th June 2006 and I can still remember how amazing the buzz was at the time. We move on, will an outrageous mega flock eclipse this one...

Venus Pool - Black tailed Godwits x 8!

A nice find by John Martin this morning with 8 Black-tailed Godwits dropping into Venus Pool on the middle island!

They flew a little closer...

And then spooked by a Heron, off again!

Images against the white sky were awful but I managed one shot against the background trees...

No room for the eighth bird on landing!

But they soon got back together!

Never mind the rain, it keeps the birds happy...