A dry, largely sunny day with a NW wind.
South shore
I just checked from the saltmarsh to Red Nab in the morning (Malcolm)
Wheatear 8
Linnet 2
Rock Pipit 1
Janet had a walk along the sea wall.
At least 2 more Rock Pipit near the lighthouse
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| This one has a grub |
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| Above the nest site |
Linnet - at least one male above their breeding area.
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| Turnstone |
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This gull struggled to swallow this small fish.
It looks to be a Sea Scorpion (Bullhead)
They have large heads and sharp, but not venomous, spines |
In the evening I walked to the waterline out from Ocean Edge, on the rising tide (Malcolm)
No Godwits today
Oystercatcher 100
Curlew 20
Knot 270
Dunlin 300
Sanderling 1
This is the Sanderling, first with Knot then Dunlin, these already in partial summer plumage.
This winter plumage Dunlin catches a small invertebrate at the beginning of this clip.
Common Gulls 116 immature - they were picking "food" off the water surface as the tide came in. It was difficult seeing what they were eating, as the sun was directly behind them. I can only think of tiny molluscs with some air trapped inside floating up from the mud as it was covered. This clip gives a sense of the activity, the water is only a few centimetres deep here, in what is effectively the estuary of one of the drainage channels.
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| Whatever the feeding opportunity was, it was soon over and all the gulls left together. This was 16:35 |
Report from Clay Garland, later in the evening.
I had a walk down by the power station and back from about 16:45-18:15.
- 4 little egrets on Red Nab.
- Large gulls only on the outflows on my way out. Then they were joined by some common gulls on the way back. No black-heads at all.
- c60 redshank and c25 turnstone sheltering from the wind on outflow 1. Plus another 30 redshank and 5 turnstone on the inside of the north harbour wall.
- 18 cormorants on the wooden jetty. If the shag was with them, I couldn't see it.
- 1 stubborn cormorant getting hammered by the wind on the outflow railing
- 4 brent geese on Red Nab on my way back.
- Song thrush singing in the bushes by the entrance to Ocean Edge. It was so loud I could still hear it from the slipway even through the wind.
- 1 rock pipit and 1 wheatear on the foreshore.
Middleton Nature Reserve
Just a brief morning check of the central Marsh.
Cetti's warbler 7 singing (2 each western marsh and "no swimming" pond, 3 on central marsh)
Lesser Whitethroat 3 singing (first of the year)
Reed warbler 1 singing
Balckcap 2 male seen
Chiffchaff and Willow warbler 4 each
Orange Tip 4 (3 male and a female)
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| Male Orange Tip |
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| Janet saw this female Small White by the heliport |
Just out of the recording area - horse paddock behind Middleton Parish Hall
Glossy Ibis still present mid morning at least
