Its been a busy old few days for the Rochdale Birders! Firstly the arrival of a first winter Squacco Heron at Big Pool Wood nature reserve in Gronant, North Wales got our interest and with Kevin C needing to see the bird, plans were made. This rather beautiful member of the heron family should be somewhere between southern Europe and its wintering grounds in Africa by now. It had been seen at Big Pool Wood nature reserve and afforded close views, what could go wrong? With Kevin driving all went well until we reached the M56 motorway near Frodsham. After 1.5 hour holdup getting 3 lanes into 1,we found out what the holdup was, namely lets repair a manhole cover at a busy time, then fall asleep in a van at the side of the motorway, it really beggars belief! You can probably tell were this story is going? After a good look around the nature reserve the heron could not be found. We were told we must have missed it by half an hour!
Our plans to visit Spurn area on Saturday were helped when an Isabelline Wheatear and a Dotterel had been found on Friday. A full Rochdale squad left on a nice morning but early news that the Wheatear was not there did not help. We firstly visited Sammy`s Point, then The Warren area and news of the Dotterel was that it was way out on the river and it would be better to wait until the tide came in at 4pm to see it. Not much going on at Spurn really, so we went back to Sammy`s Point and were told that the first winter Dotterel was in the large flock of Golden Plover in the first field, it was! Quite decent views of the bird were enjoyed. We headed for home knowing that our next visit to Spurn would be better.
Late Saturday night news that the Squacco Heron had again been seen at Gronant, maybe another quick visit to see the bird on Sunday if there is any news? At 10-30am I picked Kevin up and headed along the motorway, the weather was showery with quite dark skies all around as we got to Gronant. The bird had been seen flying into a ditch, at 11-35am on a camp site, to catch its prey (fish, frogs etc) about 15 minutes before we arrived. After battling out a couple of heavy showers the sun eventually came out and we steam dried as we waited for the bird to emerge. The three hours that we waited were passed by with John R of GM fame and the finder of the American Royal Tern on Anglesey 2018 Tony W. Also a female Hen harrier flew over then a Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk chasing the large flock of Linnets. At around 3pm the Squacco flew out of the ditch and landed about 25 yards from us and gave decent views, after 5 minutes it flew towards and above us, which was very nice! Time for home after enjoying a cracking bird, eventually!
