The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Churchill Lane area whinchat 2 0700 hrs

Walk full circuit Donna Nook realignment area 1045 to1315 hrs with Pete Childs

Sightings included , green sandpiper 6, spoonbill 3, little egret 27, grey heron 3, redshank c 160
avocet 2, greenshank 7, snipe 2, meadow pipit c 70 , marsh harrier 2 first year 1 ad female, kestrel 5, common buzzard 2,
wheatear 2 , goldfinch c 55. ( all within realignment fairly well flooded by high tide)

regards John

An earlier circuit of the realignment area (0815-1245) produced some fairly different totals. Before the onset of the full cloud cover there were some interesting counts of raptors. 13 Common Buzzards were seen, including 9 together in one thermal, at least 12 Kestrels, 5 of which persistently mobbed a Red Kite which drifted from inland and continued south at 1015, 5 Marsh Harriers, one of which was seen coming in from the sea and singles of Sparrowhawk, Peregrine and Hobby. Also of note were 28 Greenshanks, 3 Green Sandpipers, 2 Common Sandpipers, 2 Whimbrel, one Avocet, one Little Ringed Plover, one Mediterranean Gull, 74 Little Egrets and 3 Spoonbills.
Heading south were 150 Swallows, 6 House Martins, 4 Sand Martins and 160 Meadow Pipits, while at sea 3 Gannets, 4 Eiders, 20 Teal, one Shoveler and 25 Common Scoters flew north.

Interesting Steve, did see a distant thermal of 9 raptors ( buzzards ?)but only had compact scope so could not id,
guess with lower tide quite a lot of waders/egrets moved back to the wet foreshore post tide which I did not count,
wind and cloud prevailed most of visit.

regards John