The Lincolnshire Bird Club

There were fewer birds present between Stonebridge and Pye's Hall on this evening's high tide. Plenty of gulls were about, but only 120 Common Terns and one Sandwich Tern were counted coming into roost. Significant waders were 480 Oystercatchers, 2 Whimbrels, 29 Curlews, Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Avocets, 44 Grey Plovers, 54 Redshanks, 5 Greenshanks, Ruff, Common Sandpiper, 400 Knot, 10 Sanderlings and 250 Dunlin. Two flocks totalling 130 Common Scoters flew into the Humber and a solitary Redstart was by the car-park at Stonebridge.

Osprey was eating a fish on its rusty barrel this morning also Merlin.
Not having been for months I was dismayed to find most of the hedge at Pyes Hall is dead or dying: there is little there now to hold migrants a sad event.

Dying hedges: am I right to think this is a result of the 5th December surge? Are there other places where tidal flooding has killed hedges/scrub, for example at Gibraltar Point? Looking from the west side of the Trent, some of the older hawthorns along the main E-W track across Alkborough Flats look at least very sick: has that been affected also, even though presumably the flood water's salinity would have been far lower than at Pye's Hall?

The surge tide at Gib was certainly responsible for a large scale dieback of mature hawthorns and this is very evident looking north from Mill Hill. Some mature pines and sallows have also been killed off, but most sea buckthorn clumps seem to have survived well.

The hawthorn dieback is of particular concern for turtle doves that seem to favour them.

Kev

The surge was not the cause of the die back at Pyes Hall although it did cause a lot of Sea Buckthorn to be washed away. The cause is to do with the realignment, seawater is now causing many of the hedges to die. I did ask the EA if they could build a bank around Pyes Hall but they said they'd tried that at other sites but water still seeped through.
Geoff