TIME: 14:50 - 16:45
WEATHER: Absolutely sodding dreadful!
THANKS TO: Geoff the postman who became my company in the last 40 mins or so, Paul French in the hide and Simon Rummery with a school party.
15 mins after I arrived, all hell broke loose weather-wise. Monsoon-like downpour, with thunder and lightning too. A group of 3 intrepid and rain-drenched birdwatchers sought refuge in the shelter where we were totally deafened by the sound of the stair-rods on the hide's roof. Visibility was very limited, all the birds there took cover and were grounded apart from 2 hard-nut gulls who just stood there getting soggy. Brilliant lightning display over the reserve and very loud thunder.
No Roseate Terns seen during visit. Damn. Bugger. Blast.
Species seen:
Great Crested Grebe - 1 on lagoon. Apparently unusual.
Shelduck - 1 over
Tufted Duck - 1 male, 4 female
Mallard - usual small gathering near car park. A couple in eclipse plumage
Common Tern - 9
Black-headed Gull - usual
Herring Gull - 7
Cormorant - 3 alive, 1 dead
Common Sandpiper - 1
Ringed Plover - 1
Redshank - 10
Avocet - 4
Oystercatcher - 50
Knot - 3000 (went to ground on the lagoon during the monsoon)
Dunlin - 1500 (with Knot, going to ground on lagoon during monsoon)
Sand Martin - 2
Swift - 3
Swallow - 1
Linnet - 1 on salt marsh fencing
Reed Bunting - 1 on salt marsh fencing
Goldfinch - group of 7 near feeders
Greenfinch - 2 calling
Blue Tit - 3
Tree Sparrow - 3
House Sparrow - 5
Dunnock - 2
Starling - flock of 40 on lagoon grassland
Blackbird - 5
Pheasant - 2 on way, 1 male, 1 female
Woodpigeon - 6
Collared Dove - 4
Magpie - 1 on way. A portent of sorrowful weather?
Gripped off and Dipped out on a Hobby, that the postman saw and I didn't. No Lifer 151 for me today.
Good lightning though.
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