Lots of godwits

After another freezing night, it was largely overcast but dry. A light east breeze.

First a few more shots of yesterday's Cattle Egret by Janet.

South shore (Malcolm)

I had a walk out onto the shore to the south of Ocean Edge. We are just moving back to spring tides and the mud high up the shore was still frozen solid as it has not been covered by the tide for a week. Today's high water had covered some of the shore that had been frozen. I started an hour after high water when the gulls and waders were feeding on the area that the tide had just thawed out.

This bird is flying over to join the feeding waders. It is a bird that you know.
A more diagnostic shot later in this post will reveal what it is, if you don't 
recognise it

There were 150 Black-Headed gulls feeding on the newly thawed strip of shore. Although it had been frozen, there were still invertebrates living below the surface. The gulls were forming small puddles by "paddling" then eating any invertebrates that surfaced. Meanwhile, the waders were picking up food from the surface, possibly invertebrates that didn't survive the freeze.

Some of the Black-Headed gulls along the strip where they were feeding.

Waders high up the shore:

Lapwing 70

Redshank 80

Dunlin 20

Ringed Plover 1

Also Shelduck 29

I seldom walk the tide out here, one of the reasons is that there isn't really a waterline. It is so flat that the water takes ages to drain. The waders further out were stretched for hundreds of metres, some feeding while others rested.

Bar-Tailed Godwit 700 minimum.

This clip begins on a resting group of Godwits, but they are still stood in water, what appears to be the waterline behind them is just the point where the water is deep enough to be rippled by the breeze. The clip then pans on some of the waders feeding in deeper water. Not all godwits but many are.

These are some of the more distant waders feeding.

Just two of the Bar-Tailed Godwits in the group resting in shallow water
were coded. Unfortunately, standing on one leg. This one provided a glimpse
of its other leg. Possibly not enough to identify it as the lower ring on its left
leg is at least partially underwater. Even so it is enough to identify the scheme
for both birds as the same Dutch one. 

Other waders feeding at the "waterline"

Curlew 120

Oystercatcher 100

Knot 250

Dunlin 100

Grey Plover 3

The light was interesting, reflecting off the flat mud and shallow water.

This Little Egret catches, what appears to be a Common Goby in a pool below the foreshore.

Did you identify the bird in the opening shot?
Coot - A familiar bird in an unfamiliar location.