A Quiet Morning On The River

It was forecast for the northwesterly wind to decrease overnight, but when I headed to the coastal scrub it was still blowing quite strong and this part of the Obs recording area is quite exposed, so under three oktas cloud cover with a 15 mph NW wind I headed to the river.

 Lords-and-Ladies

I had a look at two sections of the river but for the purposes of this posting I have lumped the totals of my meagre sightings together. The most numerous species I had was Redshank with a total of 208 birds. I could see more birds further down stream but didn't count these. Other waders included a single Dunlin, twelve Curlews, a Lapwing and five Oystercatchers.

 The Common Sea-lavender out on the saltmarsh was getting past its best.

There was some vis this morning but not overly discernible away from the coast but it included Grey Wagtail, Alba Wagtails, Meadow Pipits, Swallows and House Martins. A number of Gulls were roosting out on the mud including 241 Herring Gulls and 76 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

 Two views of the river this morning (above & below).

On one of the pools close to the estuary were 26 Mallards, two Wigeons, four Tufted Ducks (including a female with two chicks), eight Little Grebes and a Great Crested Grebe. In the surrounding scrub were a nice flock of thirty Goldfinches, a Willow Warbler and two Whitethroats.

 Goldfinches

As the wind had dropped a little since first light I called in the cemetery on my way home to see if there were any grounded migrants and I had two Willow Warblers, and a Sparrowhawk shot through.

 Woodpigeon; the only bird I could photograph in teh cemetery.

It's Swallow roost ringing for me this evening and I'll let you know how we got on tomorrow.