Monday 11th October - Solitary confinement and digiscoping

Lots of good birds were turning up on the East coast over the weekend and I was tempted to travel further afield to try and connect with something good, so when the pager announced a Solitary Sandpiper had turned up at Seaton in Devon I decided that would be my target as it was a lifer for me and Seaton is only just over the Dorset border. I didn't leave particularly early waiting until about 8.15am, just missing the tail of the south coast rush hour, and arrived in Colyford shortly after 11am. Black Hole Marsh is a newly created section of a set of flooded marshes that border the Axe estuary. The reserve looks great, with brand new wader scrapes a new hide and proper path, the local reserve people and council have done a fantastic job and should be well proud. It always seems a newly scraped scrape properly managed  does turn up good birds (whatever has happened to the neglected Ferry Pool at Pagham !!)



Black Hole Marsh - Seaton

 When I told Sally and the girls I was going to see a Solitary Sandpiper they announced that they were sad as a bird with such a name must be terribly lonely in its solitary existence. True to form the SOLITARY SANDPIPER remained on its own in a corner of the scrape next to the footpath. Other birds there were a juv Little Stint, Green Sandpiper(3), Knot and Ringed Plover (4) and a few Little Egrets.

When I first arrived in the small crowd of other birders the bird was showing about 30ft away out on the mud I watched it exceptionally well for about 10 mins before deciding to try and get at least a record shot digiscoping the bird.

There is an art to digiscoping, which I have never mastered, mostly because I am completely cak-handed at anything requiring any element of fine motor skills - I have none !. To complicate matters,  at this point the bird decided to move closer to the bank and then right under the bank making viewing more awkward. The bank was a raised mud bund just over 5ft high, which firstly meant I had to extend the scope over my head and twist the eyepiece so I was looking skyward through the eyepiece to see the bird. I then had to manouver the contraption that holds the camera to the eyepiece also at this odd angle and looking into the light I couldn't see a thing on the camera viewing screen. So whilst all the competent photgraphers around me snapped away no doubt getting perfect shots of the lovely bird I was fumbling around, body contorted, making a hopeless mess of even trying to find the bird in the camera. Every now and then I pressed the shutter just to convince those around me that I was doing as they were, rather than what it must have looked like, which was trying to digiscope the passing Easyjet plane going to Exeter airport. ... I need my lens back please Mr Nikon. ..





'..despite being lonely, the Solitary Sandpiper turned away doubled over with laughter at the awkward one trying to take a really bad picture ..'