A strong west wind, occasionally with a touch of north. A heavy afternoon shower, otherwise dry with sunny spells
Pete checked first
A seawatch 0800-0830 saw nothing off shore
Shag 1 Early dispersing Juvenile close inshore north harbour wall heading for the harbour
Little Gull 1 x 2cy Red Nab then disappeared - probably hunkered down out of sight.
Mediterranean gull 6 at least on Red Nab
I walked from saltmarsh then along the sea wall (Malcolm) 09:15 - 10:30
Little Terns 3 - I had walked out onto the shore to check the gulls on Red Nab. The terns must have been resting on the shingle beach between the foreshore and Red Nab. It's normally busy with walkers there, but the strong winds meant that it was quiet today. But something must have spooked them and they flew west across Red Nab, probably continuing as I couldn't see them when I checked the western side of Red Nab
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| All three Little Terns |
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| Adult Little Tern |
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| Juvenile Little Tern |
Little Egret 5 along the foreshore
Whimbrel 1
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| Whimbrel |
Rock Pipit 1
Shag 1 juvenile, almost certainly the one that Pete saw. It flew from the harbour towards the wooden jetty.
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| Juvenile Shag |
Kevin Eaves checked the harbour early afternoon
There were two terns in the harbour
Little Tern 1 flew around briefly then was lost as it flew out of the harbour mouth. This will be additional to this morning's three.
Common Tern 1
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| Common Tern |
At the same time, I was checking No.2 outfall (Malcolm)
Common Tern 2 (so at least 3 around)
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| Common Tern |
Sandwich Tern 2
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| The two Sandwich Terns tended to stick together |
This clip follows one of the Sandwich Terns, but the other also makes a brief appearance.
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| This was low water at the feeding beach by the wooden jetty yesterday. Low water was 3.4m yesterday |
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| This is the same beach at low water today. Low water was 3.1m. This beach has a very gentle gradient, but this is more than the 0.3m difference in tide height. The wind was more or less the same so not that either. The reason is a marked change in atmospheric pressure. |
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| This is a screenshot from Kevin's weather station, it shows that the atmospheric pressure increased 20mb from yesterday's to today's low water. 1mb is roughly equivalent to 10mm of water, so 20mb displaces 200mm. 20cm combined with the 30cm tide difference is much more like the actual difference between the two tides. I have a tide clock at home, and mounted below it a barometer, you need both, and a tide table, to be confident as to the state of the tide. |
Anyway, the upshot was there was lots of beach exposed and the Sandmason worm tubes were very prominent, resulting in:
Mediterranean gull 20+ - only adults seen
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| Mediterranean and Black-Headed gulls in a forest of Sandmason worn tubes! |
Two returning ringed Meds were amongst them.
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| Ringed in Belgium 2019 first seen here 2021 - recent history awaited |
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| Ringed in Germany 2012, it was first seen here 2013 and pretty much every year since. After a four year gap it was seen this year on the German breeding colony where it was ringed, not leaving till 21/06/25 |
Middleton Nature Reserve (Janet)
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| Southern Hawker - On the path next to the bottom car park main pond |
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| Large White |
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| Red Admiral |
