Autumn passage brings something yellow
It was the end of a busy week of work. It looked as if we were going to be in for a lovely sunny evening and a rare American vagrant had been spotted at Goldcliff Lagoons. It was a no brainer , I was going to the reserve to chill out and hopefully spend a few hours bird watching to cap the week off. Rain was forecast on the weekend and it really looked like a wash out so I was really keen to get out with camera. A Lesser Yellowlegs ( Tringa flavipes) had been picked up on Monks Lagoon by my friend John "The Video" Lawton. Initially it was thought to have been a Wood Sandpiper but after consulting with Mike Pointon it was identified correctly as a Lesser Yellowlegs. These birds breed in the high boreal forests of the Northern hemisphere such as Alaska and Canada . The Yellowlegs then migrate south to North America to winter. Some fly further south to the Gulf of Mexico and South America. Others get lost and find themselves blown off course and turn up in the United Kingdom. I