No.2 outflow still providing

A light west wind. Heavy showers all day with some sunny spells in between.

South shore (MD)

A couple of checks in the morning and afternoon/evening.

No pipits again seen today.

Linnet 50+ on saltmarsh 

Lapwing 45

Shelduck 18

Wigeon 178

Pink-Footed goose 295 in two large, high skeins heading south

Great Crested Grebe 1 in harbour 

Little Gull 5 - in the morning there was 1 x 2nd calendar year and 3 x 1st calendar year. In the evening they were joined by an adult.

Adult Little Gull

1st calendar year Little Gull

In the morning there were no terns, but in the evening the juvenile Arctic Tern was feeding.

The Arctic Tern looks like it was checking out the Cormorant 
In fact it was just shaking water off its head.

There was a bird preening on the sea between the outflows, thought it was going to be the Red-Throated Diver. Instead it turned out to be a solitary Wigeon, preening first, then having a bath.

The tide was almost to the sea wall, causing this Bar-Tailed Godwit to alter its feeding technique to catch small invertebrates.

These four birds were flying high towards the evening light, fortunately, both species
identifiable by their silhouette. Curlew and Bar-Tailed Godwit

Turnstone seldom visit the inner harbour, but these three were having a look around.

This Cormorant is by No.2 outflow, it makes short work of a Common Blenny. When I see a blenny being caught I always wonder, "What's changed?". Blennies are territorial and intertidal, living in rock pools or under weed or in rock crevices when the tide is out (they can breathe air if necessary). It has probably never been more than 100m from where it was caught in its lifetime, it will know every nook and cranny and will have faced the same dangers every day. But today, something changed and it was caught, no option for a second chance!

Middleton Nature Reserve (JP)

The regular main pond Grey Heron

Common Toad