Wednesday 11 December 2019

One elusive plus one habitual

Ocean Edge - am
Tide flushed 18 Common snipe off the salt marsh, but not quite high enough today to flush any Jack snipe. Tomorrow might be high enough, Friday's tide will be. Jack snipe are more likely here when the tides are rising, as now, they tend to stay away after being flushed a few times.
Rock pipit 1
Purple Sandpiper 1. As far as I know (MD) this is the first sighting since 12th and 13th November. Elusive? Yes, but possibly predictable. Today's bird was seen flying east from the direction of the small beach between Red Nab and Ocen Edge foreshore at 10:50, just after high water. The previous  two sightings were from same location on similar height tides. Worth checking this beach about an hour before and up to high water on spring tides.

Middleton Nature Reserve- pm
Gadwall 31
Wigeon 1
Shoveler 2 (m&f)
Teal 10
Mallard 6
Coot 1

Redwing - up to 32 seen flying around at one time, plus many more feeding on hawthorn all around the Reserve.

Great White Egret 1. This is the habitual bird. So I decided to hang around to see if it was still commuting in the "evening" (MD). It finally turned up at 15:45, by then quite dark. It flew from the direction of golf course to ESE.

Tuesday - Shag

Shag 1 - adult or near adult briefly in harbour mouth before flying in to the inner harbour, out of sight line.

Middleton Nature Reserve
Pretty much as yesterday, but the Wigeon was back on main pond with 5 Gadwall (31 in total)

Hopefully more later