Another miserable day, rain for much of it, and a freshening SW wind.
Just my stuff so far (MD)
Pale-bellied Brent goose 20 - there were three amongst the rocks out from the play area at low water (09:25). Another 12 were in the SE skear corner but quickly flew off and appeared to head north. But by 10:15 there were 18 amongst the rocks out from the play area. This clip shows the location, you can also see the gut weed on the rocks, but there is also sea lettuce in the intervening pools.
One of the birds had two white rings with black letters, but the rain meant reading was difficult and I didn't want to get any closer and risk spooking them. We have read a double white ringed bird in previous years, but still await any details. It seems that the organisation supporting this scheme is struggling. |
| The middle bird here has two white darvic rings - hopefully to be read another day |
A check of Red Nab in the afternoon located 20 Brent, there could have been more as some were behind rocks, unfortunately all but 3 left quite early and I didn't see them go.
The only other record from the skear at low water was 14 Eider, plus Oystercatcher, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone. Not even any Little Egret!
Plenty of Wigeon around Red Nab and saltmarsh again
Red-breasted Merganser 1 female on Red Nab
Rock Pipit 4 (Red Nab, foreshore plus two on saltmarsh)
Reed Bunting 4 around saltmarsh
Common Snipe 1
Jack Snipe 2, probably 3 - three seen flushed by the tide, but the last one may have been one of the two flushed earlier.
At the time of writing this post the SW wind is getting stronger and is forecast to be very strong later and throughout tomorrow morning, hopefully something different will be blown in.
