Knot, not easy to see

A dry day with sunny spells. A light SE wind.

North shore

Pale-bellied Brent geese 26 - David Kaye

I had a walk on the skear as the tide was coming in (Malcolm)

Eder 45

Red-breasted Merganser 2

Great Crested grebe 3

Little Egret 2

Some of the Brent geese amongst the Honeycomb worm beds.
Broken weed washed in with the tide is retained by the beds.

It wasn't easy estimating the wader numbers as  most were feeding on the outer skear to begin with. 

Oystercatcher, Knot and Redshank being moved off the outer skear by the rising tide.

Eventually 900 Knot flew from the outer skear. By this time they had almost three hours feeding since daybreak and were now just interested in freshening up and having a rest. They spread out all along the edges of the inner skears. There is a Red-breasted Merganser in the background of this clip.

Curlew, Redshank and Oystercatcher.
Two of the birds with a drip at the end of their bill.

Later Howard checked the high water roosts for Knot. There were none at the Near Naze and Heliport, there were at least 300 on the Sunnyslopes groyne, but probably more out of sight on the seaward side of the groyne.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

I went this evening to check out the overnight roosts, but a quick look at the two main ponds first.

Mute Swan pair plus 1 immature (now on "no swimming" pond)

Gadwall 33

Mallard 20

Tufted Duck 1 male

Teal pair

Coot 6

Moorhen 2

Song Thrush 4 singing

Jackdaw, not as many roosting as earlier in the winter, but still at least 200

Wood Pigeon 13 came in to roost

Stock Dove 58 came in to roost, all in ones, twos and threes.

Stock Doves

Just out of the recording area (Malcolm).

As I came off the north shore this morning I walked along the northern section of the sunnyslopes, but there was no sign of any Stonechat. When I got back to my car at the end of Rydal Rd I noticed a gardener working in the large communal garden. I remembered what the lady gardener had told me the other day, so I had a look behind him. Sure enough the darker of the two Stonechats was in his wake!