Plenty of barwits

Another frosty night followed by a sunny day. Light variable breeze.

South shore - high water 09:45

I only had time for a check from saltmarsh to Red Nab (MD)

Saltmarsh 

Linnet 5

Reed Bunting 1

Lapwing c180

Some of the Lapwing, there are c100 here
You might just be able to make out a snipe in the middle of the first island 

Common Snipe 31 flushed by the rising tide

Some of the flushed snipe, heading for Middleton Nature Reserve 

Bar-Tailed Godwit 113

Bar-Tailed Godwit

Red Nab

Plenty of Shelduck and Wigeon, but the tide had almost covered all the rocks and there was no sign of any Brent geese. I assumed they had already flown to the south, and perhaps they had, but surprisingly first 27 then 3 flew in from the south.

Pale-bellied Brent goose 30 - these are the 27 flying in.

The sharp eyed amongst you may have noticed them flying past this Heron resting on a rock.

Grey Heron

It was just a few minutes after high water and some of the closer in rocks were just exposed. You can see how close cropped the Wigeon and Brent are keeping the gutweed on the rocks.

Knot 200

Dunlin 5

Rock Pipit 1

North shore

Janet spotted the  27 Pale-bellied Brent arriving out from the play area at 11:45

I had a walk out later in the afternoon towards low water (MD). I didn't see any Brent at that time.

The shore was covered in Bar-Tailed Godwits again. Very difficult to count initially as they were feeding and moving regularly to different feeding areas. But later when I was on the skear they were lined up along the shore resting, allowing a count of 710.

This clip gives an idea of the dynamics early on. It starts with mainly Knot and ends with mainly Godwits.

This is one of the feeding groups

Knot c3,000 in two flocks, but several smaller flocks were joining them as the light was fading.

Some of c300 late arriving Knot

Dunlin 25

Eider 36

Wigeon 13 (6 and 7 heading north)

Red-breasted Merganser 5

Great Crested Grebe 4 - they are already displaying