Friday 23 September 2022

Gulls, gulls, gulls

Mild, cloudy, light airs, drizzle - Spent the morning birding the peninsula before the rain set in this afternoon. Lade bay was covered in thousands of gulls and hundreds of Sandwich Terns mopping up shoals of sprats; also in the mix, five Arctic Skuas, two Guillemots, a Bonxie and five Grey Seals. As the tides are currently short, six species of waders were on the foreshore including several Grey Plovers, Knots and Sanderlings, plus eight Little Egrets and a flock of 15 Common Terns on the beach. On the gravel pits c200 Curlews at roost at the southern end while a flock of c300 Sandwich Terns nosily left the pits heading for the bay. There was no sign of yesterdays Night Heron whilst I was on site, although it had been reported first thing.

                                    Knots, Greatstone beach

The bird reserve was very quiet apart from a Little Stint and Ruff from Hanson hide where there was also  a noticeable increase in Pintail and Wigeon numbers from earlier in the week. The usual three species of egrets noted across the site along with several Buzzards, Kestrels, Marsh Harriers and a Peregrine. From Springfield bridge three Snipe flew over but otherwise it was a case of more gulls, mostly hundreds of Lesser Black-backs.

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