The Saga of the Titchfield Haven Yellowlegs.

Whilst I was on Samos, my good friend Barrie spent a day at Titchfield Haven in Hampshire, chasing a much needed tick, a Greater Yellowlegs. The bird had been faithful to the nature reserve all week, except of course the Saturday that Barrie decided to go for it. One week later, back from Samos on the Thursday and Barrie calls, “The Yellowlegs is back, do you fancy a trip” ? Yep, why not, a long time since I’ve seen a Greater Yellowlegs. So at 5:15am on Saturday morning, 30th May, we made our way down to the south coast. The reserve wasn’t open until 09:30 so we tried a few other locations where the yellowlegs had been seen, but no sign. So poor old Barrie had a few anxious hours until finally the pager buzzed to notify that the bird had been located and was present on one of the scrapes on the reserve. We eventually had good views of this attractive North American wader, looking very much like an elegant Greenshank. Another good wader on view was a summer plumaged Curlew Sandpiper and also an adult Mediterranean Gull. Avocets also seem to be doing well at this reserve with plenty on view.

After the excitement of the Greater Yellowlegs, we made our way home via a superb butterfly reserve at Magdalen Hill Down. We managed a single Small Blue, several Common Blue, 2 Small Heath and a few Brimstone in rather cool windy conditions, and also a Grass Rivulet Moth. The year list moves on to 197.