A light NE wind. Overcast with light showers.
Report from Pete:
Heliport
520 Redshank
235 Turnstone
1 snipe
Red Nab/Ocean Edge
Mediterranean gull at least 38 (22 2cy, 3 1cy)
Little Gulls 2 juvenile
Marsh Harrier highish to south over golf course about 0900
I had a walk on the shore (MD). Normally I thoroughly enjoy walking out on the mud, but today wasn't right. There was dead Whitebait strewn all over the mud. Gulls and Crows seemed to be ignoring them and just standing around. But two of the biggest opportunistic feeders wouldn't ignore such easy pickings, they must have woken up to a feast and gorged themselves silly! All the Whitebait were the same size and quite small, obviously all members of what was once a large shoal. There were tens of thousands of them and I only covered a relatively small area of the shore. I can't think of any natural cause in these tides and weather conditions. I have an idea for a possible cause, but only speculative, so I shall keep it to myself (nothing too bad).
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| This is out from the foreshore, which held the densest concentration It was like this for 200m x 50m. And there were still lots further out on the shore |
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| This section near Red Nab was covered in gull footprints and droppings and still there were hundreds of Whitebait remaining, goodness knows how many there were when the tide left them! |
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| No gulls feeding on the outflows this morning, all too full! |
Presumably the glut of free fish is what enticed the Little Gulls to hang around, although where they were resting didn't have too many fish on the mud.
These are the two juvenile Little Gulls, they appear to be resting on a young Mediterranean gull's patch of shore (we're not in black and white mode, but the wet mud was reflecting the grey sky and all three gulls were basically shades of grey).
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| Little Gull with 1st calendar year Mediterranean gull |
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| Juvenile Little Gulls |
Knot 220 - these are some of the Knot coming in.
Bar-Tailed Godwit 2
Lapwing 13 (on saltmarsh)
Plus the Oystercatchers and Curlew. There was only a few each Ringed Plover and Dunlin while I was out on the shore, but their numbers were increasing as I left.
Linnet 6 on saltmarsh
Rock Pipit 1 on Red Nab
Meadow Pipit 43 east in small groups - none closer than 50m from the shoreline.
Wheatear 29 - including 5 on Red Nab, Kevin Eaves saw 15 - 20 on Red Nab mid afternoon
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| Robin singing its heart out on the saltmarsh edge |
Pink-Footed Goose 507 in 8 skeins, the last at 10:20. Janet had 20 south early on. Jean had 731, of which at least 561 didn't overlap with mine. So minimum number today 1,088
Full report from Jean, from along the sea wall.
Pink-footed Geese - 731 in total as follows:
0840hrs 50 over HNR heading south, then 70 and then another 50
0955hrs 200 heading S over the sea
1000hrs 40 SW
1015hrs 200 S high SW over the power station
1020hrs 24 SW
1030hrs 40 SW coming over the power station m then 55 SW and finally 2 high S
Other vis:
Meadow Pipit 8 east
Pied Wagtail 1 heard
Grounded:
Goldcrest - 1 in the bushes at the harbour
Robin - 1 in the bushes at the harbour
Linnet - 4 on the wire at the harbour
Grey Wagtail - 1 flew along the sea wall and possibly the same one heard within the power station later
Goldfinch - 12 juvs in the bushes near Red Nab
Red Nab of note:
Redshank - 390 roosting at high tide
Kevin Eaves had this special moth in his overnight trap:
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| A rather special moth in the trap this morning. A very rare Clifden Nonpareil. A rare migrant which may have established itself in one or two locations in the south of the country. |
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| They are huge! |
