First Redwing!

A sunny start with lightish N to NW wind. Overcast by mid afternoon, but remained dry till late evening, when the rain started.

Middleton Nature Reserve 

Ringing session summary from Pete

Bit of a shock this am with a ‘dark’ bird with a well defined white supercilium half hidden in the shade of a blackthorn. It came out a bit further and obviously a solitary grounded redwing.  The supercilium contrasted with really indistinct malar and general smudged darkness of the breast feathers with quite a broad ‘pectoral band’.  Overall dark and heavily streaked/smudged on the underparts.  I would go for coburni, the Icelandic form.  

Other stuff included another unringed Cetti’s, migrant Robins prominent and a handful of chiffchaff, meadow pipit, Reed bunting on the move.  

Detailed report from Jean:

Blue skies made vis invisible unless the birds called or flew low enough but we winkled out the following:

0700-1100

Swallow 2

Grey Wagtail 8

Pink-footed Goose 470 in 5 flocks 

Meadow Pipit - 4 seen but 8 caught so probably in double figures

Dunnock 6

Reed Bunting 5

Chaffinch 2

Goldfinch - a flock of 8

Jackdaw 6

Raven 1 

REDWING 1 

Ringing:

New birds

Cetti’s Warbler 1

Meadow Pipit 8

Grey Wagtail 4

Reed Bunting 3 

Chiffchaff 4

Robin 4

Goldcrest 2

Long-tailed Tit 5

Blue Tit 1

Great Tit 1

Dunnock 2

Wren 1

Retraps:

Blue Tit 

Janet took these shots late morning:

Heron, leaving its favoured fishing spot on the main pond

Male Migrant Hawker

Male Common Darter

Speckled Wood 

The Alder Leaf beetles, continue to wreak havoc 

South shore - high water 13:30

I just had a stroll along the sea wall towards high water (MD)

Wigeon 5 feeding out from the covered saltmarsh 

Eider 1 between the outflows 

Mediterranean gull 1 adult flew west after resting on sea beyond the saltmarsh 

Mediterranean gull
The faux castle in the background marking the southern boundary of the recording area

Linnet 22 around saltmarsh 

Starlings c150 around saltmarsh 

Common Snipe 1 along foreshore, presumably flushed from saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit 2 (Red Nab and Lighthouse)

A nice selection of waders remained on the last rocks at Red Nab, making for easy viewing.

Ringed Plover c30

Dunlin c25

Redshank 8

Turnstone 6

This clip includes all the above species 

Curlew, bracing itself against an incoming wave

Sanderling - later, Alan Physick saw one on Red Nab when the tide was even higher!

And the rarest of all sightings, a gull on No.2 outflow superstructure (birds hardly ever rest here, it is assumed the vibrations are not good!)

Black-Headed gull on No.2 outflow