The Standlake Birder

  White-rumped Sandpiper A very unseasonable vagrant White-rumped Sandpiper was found towards the end of last week at Slimbridge WWT. As I don’t need it for my UK list I decided to avoid the weekend  crowds and go and see it on Monday if it was still there.   Slimbridge are always very well organised when it comes to rare bird twitches, they did a superb job allowing everyone to see a mega rare Little Bustard there a few years back, and the normal early limited site access to members was extended to the Discovery hide on the South Lake where the Sandpiper was spending most of its time.   It’s only an easy 40 minute motorway drive to Slimbridge from home and I arrived spot on the members opening time of 08:15. I had my members card checked at the back entrance, I don’t recall this happening before but apparently non-members had been sneaking in for free over the weekend.   The Sandpiper had been spending most of its time on the South Lake with occasional exc...

Snow Bunting Since my last blog about my trip to see a very showy Hume’s Leaf Warbler in Somerset, see here , I’ve done a couple of twitches to fill some glaring gaps in my UK list and have also been to the Wyre Forest searching for Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers.   Richardson’s Cackling Goose, given a two star rarity rating in the Colin’s Birding bible, is a diminutive form of the Canada Goose which has been comparatively recently upgraded to full species status. It is actually one of five subspecies of Cackling Goose but it is the one that occurs as a regular winter vagrant to the UK. It basically looks like a shrunk Canada Goose  that has been washed on the wrong hot cycle. It is noticeably smaller with a shorter stubby bill, short legs, and a marked steep forehead. It is a native of North America breeding in the Canadian and Alaskan Tundra before migrating south for the winter. Most UK vagrants are found in Scotland, often on the more remote islands, so when one was...