A mainly sunny day with just a very light west breeze.
North shore
Pete Crooks checked from Knowlys Rd
70 Pale-bellied Brent Geese – distantly off the children’s play area.
1 male Common Scoter – offshore
1 Grey Plover – among the large numbers of Oystercatcher and Knot on the tidal skears
And from the Battery car park
c.400 Eider drifting south on the ebbing tide
1 Guillemot
10 Red-breasted Merganser (6 males, 4 females)
I checked the skear as it became uncovered (Malcolm) 09:30 - 11:00
Two lots of Pale-Bellied Brent goose flew north 6 and 71, the latter would have been Pete's birds, presumably disturbed, but no idea where they were heading.
 |
| Brent geese heading north |
Eider 114
 |
| I managed a marginally better shot of the Common Scoter today |
Great-Crested Grebe 4
 |
| Great Crested grebe |
Little Egret 4
Oystercatcher 700
Curlew 10
Redshank 150
Turnstone 40
Dunlin 1
Knot 1500 - they were resting on the edge of the skear and didn't move for 30 minutes until a Peregrine Falcon attacked them.
 |
| You can see the Peregrine in each of these shots. This attack was unsuccessful but all these Knot continued south. |
Later 400 Knot arrived to feed, possibly additional, or possibly some returning. I managed to read two new flagged birds for this winter.
Imperial Rd (Malcolm)
I just got out of my car and both Stonechats flew over to "greet" me. I suspect that on one visit I must have flushed a tasty morsel for them, and they were hoping for an encore.
 |
| The male rested on this post only 3m away |
 |
| The female was close too, but I zoomed out to show the location. That's my car parked just by the blocked entrance 50m from the roundabout. |
I was only there two minutes!
