Steve and I visited Derek White's Eggs this lunchtime, to be greeted by one of the above. Returning to the plateau at The Lodge, we eventually managed to nail the bird! Black-tailed Godwit - a new bird for The Lodge!
I'm still a bit miffed about Sunday's Ring Ouzel. I could have sworn volunteers were included, but looking back through correspondence with Nick, I stupidly omitted it!
I just hope a BTO vol finds a good single-observer bird!
The thing is we don't have many volunteers visiting the reserve, and those that do are nearly always there with our reserve manager. Hence we were keen to stick with staff-only from the start ;)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, no sympathy this end as you're already at a huge advantage in terms of staff numbers without needing to resort to vols (which - one could argue - is anyone visiting & recording on the reserve, such as the BirdTracker who recorded Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at The Lodge the other day...)
Lesser Spot? Do you have a name Nick? We haven't really got any Lesser Spot habitat here anymore. I wonder if it was Lesser Redpoll? The last LSW record here was autumn 2005...
ReplyDeleteEven though we have more staff, I wouldn't say we have any more participants in the challenge - a hardcore of about a dozen, so probably about the same as you.
And I'm relaxed about the RZ - rules are rules!
I'll query the observer re: the Lesser Spot & let you know. I meant to mention it to you last week but I was on leave for a few days and ran out of time.
ReplyDeleteLooks like RZ is annual at The Lodge so I'm sure one of The Lodgers will find it/one; you've got more chance than us of both this sp. and FC.