The rain held off till mid afternoon, but it was murky with low cloud all day. Virtually no breeze.
South shore - Malcolm 09:00 - 11:30
I walked out to the waterline again. A bit of an act of faith as visibility was terrible and there was no way of knowing if there was anything waiting for me. Eventually I reached waders but most were scattered over a vast range of mud.
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| The dark line is mainly Knot and Dunlin |
Unfortunately when they are spread out like this it isn't possible to get close to many.These are minimum numbers:
Curlew 15
Oystercatcher 100
Bar-Tailed Godwit 50
Grey Plover 15
Knot 3000
Dunlin 2000
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| Curlew and Oystercatcher |
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| Grey Plover and Dunlin |
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| Bar-Tailed Godwit and Knot |
Also:
Shelduck 10 higher up the shore
Pink-Footed goose 1 flying around to try and get its bearings.
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| Shelduck |
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| Pink-Footed goose |
Just about every year a car gets stranded out here. The mud can be quite firm and no problem to drive on. But many fail to realise that when the tide comes in it comes in under the mud first, before covering it. This makes the mud firm no more, and too soft to support a car. Not sure if this is a new casualty or a previous one being revealed by the shifting mud.
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| Looks in quite a fresh condition, but it will very slowly rot away. |
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| This Hermit crab was in a drain. You can just make out a leg and a bit of claw. Quite a small crab for this size shell. I turned it the right way round but it didn't try to move in the flow of the drain. It will be fine when there is less flow as the tide comes in |
