Back In The Saddle

After a weeks holiday in Devon, it was good to be wandering around the obs again this morning. There's only so many cream teas you can have and National Trust properties you can visit!

I didn't venture out too early, arriving at the obs at 6.00 a.m. to full cloud cover and a light northerly wind. I obviously didn't expect any migrants (yet), but wanted to see how some of the breeding birds had fared. A number of fields were flooded after all the heavy rain we have had and on one flood were 122 Herring Gulls with a couple of Lessers.

Blackbirds were making the most of the moist ground conditions to glean inverts from the surface and in a all I had 18 on my walk round. Swallows and House Martins fed over the fields collecting food for hungry chicks back in their nests. With the weather of the past few days I imagine that aerial insects will have been hard to come by.

I had 9 Whitethroats on my round, including a couple of groups of fledged young. I made a note to myself to come back in the week with Ian to clear the net rides and hopefully have a ringing session soon after.Over by the reedbeds in the dunes, three Sedge Warblers were still singing on territory. Whether this means that they have lost nests and started again, I'm not sure.

As expected the sea was very quiet and I had nothing other than a couple of Cormorants and an Oystercatcher! Because of the damp weather there were large numbers of snails around and I was trying my best not to 'crunch' them! Below is a picture of one of the little critters and then another of a couple enjoying some breakfast. Yum, yum!