Green Sand' = 250th yeartick!!

Yep, the title is correct! After 207 days of 2010, my elusive quarry has fallen! Now, this may sound a little OTT but up until today, I had genuinely resorted to believing that I had more chance of seeing Slender billed Curlew/Liz Hurley taking a soapy plunge in my tub/Liz Hurley waking me up with a coffee and pack of Embassy No.1 dressed as a naughty schoolgirl etc, than I had of bagging Green Sand for the year! Anyhow, this is how it went - Leaving work at 5pm, I noticed a pager message reporting a Common Scoter at Ogston Res' and tagged onto that message was this bit of juicey news - '' + Green Sand<''. Now, even tho I desperately needed to see this species for the year, I HAD said there was no way I was going chasing one BUT Ogston Res is a decent place (let down by it's county of residence!), I f*ckin' love inland seabirds and if I caned it from home, I could get there in 9 minutes! The twitch was on! I arrived home in Tibshelf at 5.25pm, grabbed my scope and jumped back in the motor (engine foolishly left running!) and arrived at Ogston at 5.37pm! Now, I wouldn't normally be writing so much shite regarding times etc but this was the one, the holy grail of 2010, the chance to hit 250 for the year with.....................a proper w*nk species! Viewing from the car park on the west bank, I quickly located the imm drk Common Scoter loafing just offshore. I then moved to the public hide and noted 8 imm Mandarins, Oystercatchers, a few juv' Ringed Plovers, a twat with a sco-pac, a couple of typically miserable derbyshire birding bastards but no Tringa. A few more sweeps of the far bank from the car park revealed 3 Common Sands and very little else! Time was now ticking by and with a phonecall from the other half demanding that if I wasn't back within 15 minutes my tea would be inside the next door neighbours dogs, I 'threw' the scope and bins into the car and quite angrily started heading home. However, a decision to make one final stop to scan the Wooley Moor bay of the reservoir proved to be the highlight of the year(?) as stood on the spit here was the bird I had been dreaming of (I haven't really) for the last 6 months.....Green Sand (250)!
And that was it, a true anti-climax to a pretty annoying quest but with a wry smirk to myself, I did one and thoroughly enjoyed a (still warm) sausage hotpot!

Babbys!


Blackish duck


The location of the Holy Grail...some f*cker tell Tom Hanks!!



I 'ATE Fishermen too,