OBP

Out with Mark and Paz and we headed up to Sunderland this morning where an Olive Backed Pipit had been found on a bit of waste ground near the Docks last Friday, it wasn’t looking good at first, despite it being a nice sunny morning there was no sign and we started thinking it had maybe gone however after an hour or so the Lesser Whitethroat thought to be of the eastern race blythii that had also been present the last two days started showing, we spent a bit of time with it with hopes raised that the Pipit would also still be around somewhere and indeed some 20 mins later it was found feeding amongst the leaf litter on a tree covered bank, in the increasingly windy conditions there was no way it was going to come out in the open as it had yesterday so it was a bit challenging for photography but views were superb, I've seen four or five before but only had brief views so it was a real pleasure to watch this over a prolonged period. After lunch we headed back calling in at Saltholme, by this time it was blowing a gale and the reserve was fairly quiet, highlights were a couple of Little Egrets, a flock of around 30 Barnacle Geese and I year ticked Merlin.