Loads of birds, and all before breakfast!

A dry and mainly sunny day after an early morning shower. A fresh SW wind

First a ringing report for yesterday by John:

Three nets set at Middleton yesterday morning. Very calm initially but a bit brighter than ideal. 26 birds caught, with 18 of these being young birds.

Willow Warbler    6

Blackcap   6

Garden Warbler   4

Sedge Warbler   3

Chiffchaff   2

Lesser Whitethroat   2

Blue Tit   2

Cetti's Warbler 1

The only retrap was a Willow Warbler ring number JVJ052, which was ringed here in July 2018, and recorded each year since, apart from 2020 . It would have been here or close, even though we didn't encounter it. As Willow Warblers spend their winters in sub-saharan Africa, the estimated minimum distance it would have travelled in migration over this period is 50,000 miles.

Red Nab to saltmarsh shore (MD)

I had very little time today so just had an early morning (6:30 -8:30) walk on the shore out from the saltmarsh towards high water. We are back to neap tides now and much of the shore beyond the saltmarsh remains uncovered at high water.

There were loads of gulls roosting on the shore. I didn't try to count them, but easily as many as Pete counted yesterday, including:

Mediterranean Gulls 30+ - three had darvic rings including one new one - details awaited.

Roosting with the gulls were Sandwich Terns - at least 122

There were 100 on this middle section.........

..........plus another 20 on the beach just in front of me, and another 2 flying at this point. A further 10 on Red Nab, may have been additional.

Two Sandwich Tern in flight and a sense of today's conditions 

Juvenile Sandwich Tern

Adult Sandwich Tern on Red Nab

8 of the 13 Cormorants seen heading SE

Shelduck 15 including 7 juvenile 

Shelduck and Dunlin

There was a good selection and high numbers of waders. The following refers to one group well within the recording area, there were more further south towards the recording area boundary.

Curlew 100+

Oystercatcher c200

Bar-Tailed Godwit c50

Grey Plover c200

Knot 60

Dunlin c250

Ringed Plover 6

Redshank 10 on saltmarsh 

Lapwing 2 on saltmarsh 

These are Grey Plover, Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot, with Dunlin and more Grey Plover coming in.

Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot

Dunlin

Grey Plover and a Knot

Grey Plover and a Bar-Tailed Godwit