This morning, I was planning a leisurely day at home, but that changed when Brian phoned to ask if I wanted to go to Manningtree to try for the Hudsonian Godwit.
I have only ever seen one in the UK, a male at Burton Mere in Cheshire, and the chance to see one in my home county of Essex was all I needed to agree to the trip.
We parked alongside the CO-OP supermarket and took the riverside path. A returning birder told us the target bird was feeding along the shoreline, only 100 metres along the path. We could see a group of godwits ahead of us, but as we approached, it was clear that the bird was not among them. We were told it had flown downriver 10 minutes earlier. We carried on along the path, under the railway bridge, crossed the A137, and continued along the path, hoping to find the godwit along this stretch of the river. Ahead of us was a small group of birders, all looking intently at a single godwit on the far bank. It was the Hudsonian Godwit. It made a couple of short flights, showing the diagnostic black axillaries and underwing coverts. Suddenly, it headed upriver and landed below a grass bank among a flock of Black-headed Gulls. It remained out of view for a short time until a tractor came along and the gulls and godwit took flight. It returned to the water's edge and began feeding again.
Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) is the smallest of the godwits; it breeds on grassy tundra in Canada and Alaska and winters in southern South America.
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| Hudsonian Godwit |
Previous records of Hudsonian Godwit in the UK.
1981- 1983 An adult bird at Blacktoft Sands, Yorkshire, before wintering at Countess Wear in Devon. The same individual was presumed to have returned to Blacktoft Sands in the spring of 1983
1988 A one-day individual at Slains Pools, Collieston, Aberdeen
2015 Two separate birds arrived; one at Meare Heath (Somerset) in April-May, and a male later in the summer/autumn in Inishdawros, Ballyconneely, County Galway/Inishmore, County Galway (not included in the UK records)
2020 A juvenile on the Eden Estuary in Fife from November to December
2023 A summer male at Grutness Pool on Shetland from July to August
2024 A male at Burton Mere Wetlands in Cheshire and then in Flint, Flintshire, North-east Wales, Aug/Sept
2025 A female at Titchfield Haven in Hampshire, April/May
2026 A one-day male at Minsmere, Suffolk, in July, now present between Cattawade, Suffolk, and Manningtree, Essex
