After picking Mrs R up from work and dropping her at home after her night shift,i made my way over to my parking spot at Winter's Pond.I knew it would be high tide,so i expected a few waders to be roosting on Winter's, i wonder what today would bring.
After getting the gear together,the first bird i saw was a juvenile Little-ringed Plover feeding on the piece of mud directly opposite the car,a nice start i thought.As i walked around the small copse and began to scan the pit,it became apparent that there were 3 not 1 LRP's present and all were juveniles.These lovely little,clock work waders are always a joy to watch with their stop start feeding action and it would be great to think these 3 are locally bred birds.
More scanning saw only a relatively small number of Black-tailed Godwits present today,with 140 present,but also 2 Knot and a juvenile Greenshank added a bit of variety.
There was a huge flock of Greylag's loafing on the pit and eventually i counted a whopping 852 with the regular 14 Canada's also present.Other bits of Wildfowl included the 2 resident Mute Swans,the 4 Tufties that have been here for months now and 25 Coot,but it looks like the Goldeneye has left now.
I then decided to walk the edge of the mitigation site up to the Skitter,with some lovely big,sunny skies on show giving me a chance to take a few landscape pics.
Bird wise along here,it was pretty good,with a single Ruff,3 Curlew and 2 Green Sandpiper on the pools,with a distant Marsh Harrier hunting the pasture field at the Skitter.The best bird went to a passerine,with another juv. Whinchat being recorded,after the birds on the 24th.It gave pretty brief views,before disappearing into the sea of thistles,but was nice to see all the same.
The only other notables along here,were a good sized flock of 135 Goldfinch and 4 Roe Deer,with 2 Doe's and 2 fawns,1 female had twins,which was nice to see and i managed to grab a record shot of one of them.
A quick search around the Skitter plantation and hedgerows revealed no interesting Warbler's or Flycatcher's unfortunately,but the Skitter area looked like it had decent numbers of waders and wildfowl.
A quick scan through,saw the unseasonal sight of Dark-bellied Brent Goose browsing on seaweed and i wondered if it could be one of the birds i saw on 30th July here.Other sighting's here today consisted of 3 Ruff,the juv. Spotted Redshank again,as on my last visit,3 Avocet,6 Common Sandpiper,7 Knot,1 Whimbrel and at least 650 Black-tailed Godwit.A good look through the latter revealed another colour-ringed bird with white over a black flag on it's left leg and white over red on it's right leg and I'm waiting for details back on the bird.
After covering the Skitter area,i slowly headed back to Winter's and the car seeing a flock of 10 Wigeon heading south along the estuary,a sure sign Winter is on it's way.
Another decent visit today and i look forward to my next here.
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| Roe Deer Fawn On The Mitigation Site. |
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| Dark-bellied Brent Goose At The Skitter. |
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| Whimbrel Flyby At The Skitter |
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