Not many waders, but they were interesting ones

Some heavy overnight rain and showers all morning. A dry afternoon with a bit of evening sunshine.

Middleton Nature Reserve (Malcolm)

Just a passing check of the two main ponds this afternoon

The "no swimming" pond has returned to its normal height. The blackened 
vegetation shows the level it had been. There were 8 Tufted Ducks, 2 Gadwall
and two Moorhen on it this afternoon.

On the main pond:

Female Mute Swan with 7 cygnets

31 Tufted Duck (39 total)

6 Gadwall (8 total)

Mallard 23

Some of the Mallard were on the east banking. Waiting for someone to
arrive and feed them. They didn't have to wait long!

Female Mallard

Female and male Gadwall

Moorhen 4 (6 total)

Coot 14 - at this time of year it is difficult to tell if the Coot are fighting or courting. Their courtship isn't genteel! In this clip there is probably a bit of both going on.

South shore (Malcolm)

I set out from Potts Corner again. It was 14:25, just 1.5hr after low water. But we are on neap tides so the tide doesn't go as far as spring tides. Even so it was a long walk out to the waterline and it was 15:20 before I reached the recording area (although I was distracted on the way out, more on this later).

Shelduck 150 minimum, this lot decided to head south, there are 125 in this clip.

The only waders in the recording area were:

Oystercatcher 60

Curlew just 5 initially on the shore, another 80 had joined them by the time I finished.

Dunlin 11

Sanderling 38 - two groups of 30 and 8. All 30 are in this clip, which ends on the 11 Dunlin. They are feeding on the tiny snails that are currently abundant on the wet sections of shore.

After feeding a while they flew south

The other 8 were closer to the sea wall

All 8 Sanderlings in this shot

This one was ringed, no chance of reading it of course

And that was it.

Just out of the recording area - just out from Potts Corner (Malcolm)

Curlew Sandpiper 3 juveniles

Juvenile Curlew Sandpipers

This clip shows their white rumps

You can see them picking up the tiny snails in this clip. Normally on neap tides this far up the shore, the mud is dry and the snails burrow below the surface, just leaving a telltale "pimple" of mud. But the rain overnight and throughout the morning had left plenty of wet areas. Every black speck is a snail.

It was almost 17:00 by the time I got back to Potts, by that time some of
the mud had dried, and the snails were under the surface again. Every pimple
hides a snail.