Shrimping season has definitely started

Another dry and mainly sunny day with a light SE wind.

South shore (Malcolm)

Just a 08:45 check from the saltmarsh to Red Nab, unfortunately just too late in the rising tide for any Brent geese to still be on Red Nab

Wigeon 220 flew from Red Nab to the saltmarsh 

Wigeon catching the low morning sun

Rock Pipit 1 on the saltmarsh 

Rock Pipit

Common Snipe 1 along the foreshore 

A Peregrine Falcon lifted everything off Red Nab. The returned waders when I got there were: Oystercatcher, Curlew, Turnstone and a solitary Grey Plover

Grey Plover

It calmly stood on one leg as the waves lapped around it.

Imperial Rd (Malcolm) 09:15

It was noisy! There were loads of corvids around, the Water Rails (at least 3) were all calling and a Cetti's warbler singing. 

After a while the Rails and Cetti's went silent, but the corvids kept arguing.

Raven 1 (heard only), possibly what all the fuss was about.

Carrion Crow 12

Magpie 6 

Jackdaw 2

Carrion Crows and possibly a Raven it was calling from this direction 

Stonechat just a male seen distantly 

Stonechat

Fox on the prowl

Heliport and Near Naze (Malcolm)

Oystercatcher on the heliport wall

Knot on the Near Naze rocks, four new flagged birds were seen

Lapwing coming in to land

Heysham skear (Malcolm)  12:15 - 14:00

Pale-bellied Brent goose 3 came in from the north.

Pale-bellied Brent geese

Eider 43

Red-breasted Merganser 1 male

There were no female Mergansers around, so the male displayed to the Eider!

Great Crested Grebe 3 at least

Great Crested Grebe

Shag at least 1 juvenile 

Juvenile Shag

This Lesser Blacked-backed gull has a fish, can't tell what species it is

These gulls, mainly Black-Headed, were catching tiny shrimps. Looks to be a bumper year!

There ended up being 1,000 Knot and some of them were also checking for shrimps in the margins, before a Peregrine cleared them again!

Knot checking the shallow margins for tiny shrimps