Green Sandpiper Since my twitch to see a Black-winged Pratincole, see here , there’s been nothing to entice me to drive any distance. There was a report of a Tibetan Sand Plover some 4 hours’ drive away in Northumberland but before I could turn the car engine on it was reidentified as a Greater Sand Plover, a bird I have seen well before. I guess its inevitable as my UK list moves well into the 400’s that there will be less and less new birds to tick. With the exceptions of a few gaping holes, most notably around seabirds, its only rare new birds ticks that will get my list growing. I’m also finding myself less and less motivated to drive long distances to see birds I’ve seen well and photographed before. High summer is always slow for birding with many birders turning to the temporary delights of butterflies and dragonflies but my second major hobby, gardening, together with general maintainace work around our smallholding keeps me very busy over the summer. Worcestershire’