I arrived around 9am to be greeted with a steady number of cars already in the car park. The air was filled with the sounds of calling Yellow Wagtails, as well as a good gathering of Swallows and Sand Martins overhead.
I made my way straight towards the Reedbed Hide area, where both the Stilt Sand and Dowitcher were likely to be seen. Quite a crowd was already lined up along the path, just before the Reedbed hide, viewing the bird-filled area between here and the small visitor centre. I joined them and began scanning. In no time, with a little assistance from the guy stood next to me, I was able to enjoy good scope views of both the Stilt Sandpiper and the Long-Billed Dowitcher. They were very contrasting in their activity, with the Stilt Sand veraciously feeding away, almost constantly with it's head in the water. The Dowitcher on the other hand was sat fast asleep with Lapwings, on a nearby island!
As well as the yanks, there were loads of birds to go through here. These were further enhanced by several thousand Black Tailed Godwit swooping in over our heads from the nearby wash and landing on the islands / scrapes in front of us. The swooshing sounds of their wings cutting through the air as they spiraled down was amazing!
Waders here were generally plentiful, with a moulting adult Curlew Sandpiper, several Knot & a Bar-Tailed Godwit amongst the Black-Tailed Godwits, as well as plenty of Ruff, Ringed Plovers and Dunlin.
I spent ages picking through the numerous Teal, looking for Garganey and eventually found one, possibly two, as well as a handful of Pintail, before a juvenile Peregrine bombed through, putting everything up!
After a good while, I moved on down towards the East Hide. Along the way, 3 Spoonbill flew out towards the wash and I also got some great views of another or the same moulting adult Curlew Sandpiper close to the path, feeding with a few Dunlin & Ringed Plover.
This area near to the East Hide produced a further 3 Curlew Sandpipers (all juveniles), plus the summering collar-ringed Pink Footed Goose. I was starving by this point and so I headed back to the car for food. Soon after, I set out again to explore the southern and eastern parts of the reserve.
An amazing 28 (!!) Spotted Redshank (23 of the 28 below, together with a couple of Black-Tailed Godwits) were the main highlight assembled near to the sea wall, by far the most I've seen by some distance. I enjoyed them for a while, until a Chinook helicopter came through low over the reserve, literally putting everything up. Surely that's not allowed!!
Other birds of note during my walk included a couple of Golden Plover, 3 Wheatears, a Whinchat, 4 Marsh Harriers, 2 Greenshank, a Common Sandpiper and many more Yellow Wagtails.
Before leaving, I decided to go back and have one last look at the Stilt Sand and the Dowitcher. I was well chuffed to discover that the Long-Billed Dowitcher was now right in front of the Reedbed Hide...and I mean right in front of the hide, just 15-20 feet away, giving amazing views as it eagerly fed away, albeit looking into the sun a bit.
The Stilt Sandpiper gave further decent scope views and so I was more than satisfied to head home. Not before the summering Whooper Swan and the one and only Green Sandpiper of the day went overhead calling. That concluded the day...and it was time to head back to Northants.
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