I called Phil once BT had departed, having left the Urquhart household in mental disarray. An arrangement with Phil to meet in the cafe at Farmoor at noon had to be cancelled due to the cafe being overwhelmed with the many kids from the various sailing schools that are now a feature of the reservoir, all wanting lunch at the same time resulting in predictable chaos in the cafe.
Phil suggested I come to his house for a coffee and in passing mentioned that on his walk around the reservoir with Dave and Alison, Dave had discovered a small wader on the causeway that he thought was a Little Stint. I called Dave who said he was fairly certain it was one but was not entirely sure.
This put me in a dilemna but in the end I rang Phil and told him I was going to Farmoor to seek out Dave's mystery wader and would come to his home after checking on the wader's identity. I was fairly confident the wader would still be there as Little Stints if indeed it was one, whenever they arrive on the reservoir, are often confiding and not troubled by the constant passing of humankind along the causeway
Half an hour later I had walked the entire length and back of the causeway but failed to find any wader of any sort wandering along by the water.
A Ringed Plover called from above on the walk back and a late Swift flickered in a grey and windy sky amongst a scattering of House and Sand Martins, their cheery calls a counterpoint to my disappointment.
I drove to Phil's and we had a coffee and Dave sent me an image of the wader he had photographed. There was no doubt. It was a juvenile Little Stint. A very good bird to see at Farmoor. I put the news out on the Oxon Bird Forum that a Little Stint had been seen and photographed at the reservoir but there was now no sign of it. Maybe it was still on the reservoir for someone to refind somewhere, as there are three miles of concrete edge for it to choose from!
I made for home in a not very good frame of mind as I now had the daunting prospect of resuming battle with not only BT but Sky as well, to try and sort out the mess from this morning. More phone calls ended in yet more frustration and stress as the combined efforts of all three of us failed to get anywhere.I slumped in mute despair on the sofa, mentally worn down and resigned to accepting that nothing was going to get resolved in the state I was now in.
In the end I could take no more so we settled for a Sky engineer to come out the following week which might have been the best course of action in the first place. At least it was over for now.
My phone pinged with another message from the Oxon Bird Forum
The Litte Stint was back on the causeway at Farmoor!
In landlocked Oxfordshire Little Stints are unusual, by no means annual and virtually all that are seen occur at Farmoor, so this latest bird was a must see if possible. The last Little Stint I saw was two years ago and not at Farmoor. It was an adult on the Isle of Arran in Scotland, migrating north, the first seen there for twenty two years see here
I grabbed my bins and camera and headed out the door. At least this would divert my concerns about BT and the minor disaster they had inflicted but had now promised to sort out.
Rush hour traffic did not help my equanimity on the thirty minute drive to Farmoor nor did the roadworks requiring four way traffic control and a consequent long delay on the approach road to the reservoir but finally I drove in the reservoir gates, parked the car and made haste for the central causeway.
The causeway runs from east to west and the sun was shining from the west straight down the causeway as I walked up, making it impossible to make out if any birders were further along to give me a clue if the stint was still around and if so, where. The last news had said the stint was about half way along the causeway near the hide. It wasn't but I could see two familiar figures sat on the causeway wall, Thomas and Steve. They seemed relaxed but were not looking at anything.
My heart sank
Not again surely.
Had the stint given me the slip for a second time?
But no, they pointed a bit further and there was the Little Stint fussing along, feeding non stop at the water's edge.
I duly took my photos, trying to get the sun behind me and that was still shining blindingly bright, straight and true, down the length of the causeway
The bird itself never once ceased in its quest for food, picking indiscernible items from the wet slimy concrete.
Being a juvenile it was in a pristine plumage of pleasingly, neatly patterned, black centred, chestnut coverts with two prominent white lines. so called braces, at either side of its mantle.
They are tiny birds, no more than 13-14cms, the size of a House Sparrow but unlike that sedentary species they are world champion migrants, flying phenomenal distances, up to 12000 kms, from their breeding grounds in the Arctic Circle to their winter home in South Africa.
Years ago I found one feeding on the midden of a safari camp we were staying at on Lake Kariba in landlocked Zimbabwe, presumably making its way overland to the South African coast.
Steve departed and Thomas left soon afterwards and it was now myself and the stint with not another person on the causeway. Un-noticed the sun had slipped lower in the sky and that golden time commenced when the light is less intense and gentler on the eyes.
I glanced for one last time at the tiny crouched form still feeding avidly along the edge of the water, reluctant to depart, for who knows when I will see another Little Stint. I stood imagining myself somewhere nicer involving water, a beach in Africa perchance which is possibly where the current focus of my attention was bound.
Never mind, Farmoor Reservoir would have to do for both of us in the meantime.
Postscript
No comments:
Post a Comment