More than enough food to go around

 A fresh west(ish) wind. Heavy showers, but sunny periods in between.

South shore - Malcolm 10:00 - 11:45

Linnet c200 and Greenfinch 15 feeding around the saltmarsh 

Shelduck 30

It was very nice to be out in the sunshine, but it made looking south almost 
impossible with the low sun reflecting off the wet mud and sea. This is a full
colour shot of some of the Shelduck out from the saltmarsh 

Wigeon 30+ they were starting to gather beside No.2 outfall as I was walking out, then on Red Nab on my return.

Black-Headed Gulls, Wigeon and a Little Egret beside No.2 outfall

There were a lot of Black-Headed gulls feeding on both outfalls, there was clearly plenty of food available for them today.

These are some of the Black-Headed gulls on No.1 outfall. It was easy 
looking to the west, but the gulls were flying into the west wind, so you only
see the back of them from this angle.

This young Herring gull is just out from the waterfall by the water intakes
in the harbour. This returns any fish etc removed by the initial screening
of the cooling water. Normally a prize like this is a premium and the gull
flies off with it, often chased by others.....

.......but today it was playing with it and could barely be bothered to actually
eat it. There must have been a lot around for a good while this morning 

On the way back a tern had joined the gulls on No.1 outfall. It was feeding more than half way along the outfall and looking into the bright light made it tricky to identify. In real time I thought it could be either a juvenile Common or Arctic Tern. But I had set my camera to low exposure and it got better views than I did! Revealing it to be a juvenile Arctic Tern

After finding this Whitebait it disappeared. But I expect it would have 
returned to such easy pickings 

Common Gull past the roundhead

The bright low sun was illuminating the Cormorants on the wooden jetty nicely 

Curlew  - a steady passage from the north side in small groups 

Oystercatcher, just a few birds seen, they were probably on the heliport

Knot 6 flocks 200 - 500 south, likely flushed off the skear by the rapidly rising tide.

Redshank 23 between the outfalls then into the harbour to roost

Turnstone 6 - this one was feeding on one of the platforms in the harbour, looking for whatever it could find between the barnacles. Another bird that has clearly been finding enough food......