ML619675062

Observation details

At least 3 known birds found by I. Povalyaev and M. Hafting have been frequenting the mudflats flats and surrounding fields for nearly a week. As tide came in I picked up a group of distant feeding godwits. As birds came closer I could see that there was a mix of reddish plumaged male-types and some drabber plumaged first cycle or female types. At some point they all gathered loosely to feed mostly among WHIM. Tide was rising fast so BBPL and others took off towards NE fields but Barwits stayed. Poor record videos show attempt to count what appear to be all 8 Barwits. Eventually the fast moving tide displaced 4 and in flight all had clean lightly barred auxiliaries with no obvious buffy tones. A group of 4 lingered even closer and provided nice views and fly-bys despite the tide. Calls in flight were heard and sounded reminiscent of MAGO, but lighter and less abrasive.