Made it by a minute

I had today off work; I'd been thinking about going to the Lincs coast, but in the end decided to give it a miss and do a morning's work on my section of the Notts Bird Report (just hirundines left to do now...), and then some local birding in the afternoon. 

I began at Ferry Lane Lake, which was pretty quite, so I counted the Pochard (146, including one with a pale greeny-blue nasal saddle, which appeared to bear the code T4 but was difficult to make out even with my scope whacked up to 50x), noting the 2 Red-crested Pochards as well. In the field to the west, there were 312 Golden Plovers, which were too distant to grill properly. On Mons Pool, yesterday's Black-tailed Godwit was still present, along with 2 Green Sands and a Curlew (heard only towards the Silt Lagoon). More time along Northcroft Lane produced 6+ Chiffchaffs and a male Blackcap, but little else. Where is that Yellow-brow?

I then decided to give Meering a go, mainly to see if there were any warblers in evidence; there were, but again only a few Chiffchaffs. I then wondered round the wetland areas, not really expecting to see anything; there was however, a Green Sand on the reedbed creation area, and then a Dunlin on the old Eon Lagoon; closer inspection suggested there were a couple of other waders here as well, but they were partially concealed round a corner. I crept along the bank on the north side of the lagoon, and peered through the vegetation along the fenceline; Dunlin. Ruff. Another Ruff. And a fourth bird which looked interesting... a juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper. 

I got myself into a better viewing position  and took some poor hand-held shots (I'd left my adapter in the car, always a guarantee that I'll see something I want to photograph). Unfortunately I couldn't spend as long with this bird as I wanted, as I had to be back for a home delivery from Sainsbury's in the 7-8pm slot; I pushed it for as long as I felt I could, and made it back home at 7:04pm. The delivery driver was waiting for me, and apparently I had one more minute before he was leaving. Perfect timing!

Pec Sand

Pec, showing breast band

The best Pec pic I could manage

Spot the Pec - with a Dunlin and 2 Ruff

So Pec Sand becomes my 132nd Patchwork Challenge species of the year, and my first 3 pointer - doubled to 6 as a self-found bird. It's only taken 9 months!