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20 Oct 2010

Stans the man.

A phone call from Stan Skelton around lunchtime today to say he'd got a possible barred Warbler feeding on Elderberries at the back end of the Shotwick rifle range got me interested. Local birders still class this area as part of the Old Wirral One Hundred so it would be a Cheshire & Wirral tick for me!

Luckily my office is only 10 minutes away so off  I went ringing a few contacts before I went. On arrival I had a brief glimpse through Stan's scope but it looked good and rang Al Conlin who was on his way with Mark Turner. They arrived about 10 minutes later but the bird was being elusive and we didn't see it again for a further 15 minutes when it started to perform well. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me and the combination of a shit digiscoper and shit camera on the iPhone meant these are possible the worst 'record' shots you'll ever see!




Well done Stan and many thanks for the call! It just shows scarce birds can turn up anywhere!

3 comments :

Denzil said...

Hi Phil

Can you please pass on my congratulations to Stan,that really is an absolutely super bird!
And of coarse I'm thoroughly delighted that yourself and others also got the chance to see the bird.
I'll drop a line to my good friend Paul Shenton,who I think knows Stan anyway,to hopefully give him a chance to enjoy the bird as well.
Sadly I'll have to miss out on this one,unless I'm lucky enough to pick it up at Shotton Pools NR on Friday.

Cheers Denzil

Podster said...

You naughty boy, thats in Flintshire surely (elastic boundary). Just like the Little Crake what?

Phil Woollen. said...

I know, but accordign to the Wizzal rules it counts as Wirral but not Cheshire. Work that one out!

Did you get there?