BLIMEY!
Just got back from my first un-chaperoned trip. I am now recovered enough to carry the scope on my own! And what a day to have that first one! There seem to be works going on within the lagoon area that have attracted shedloads of waders. I have NEVER, in all the times I've been there, seen so many on the islands!!!!!! Now, if that wasn't enough, I got a lovely pair of hooters too!!
SPECIES SEEN:
BARN OWL - 1
SHORT-EARED OWL - 1
As soon as I'd stopped watching the Barn Owl, I walked just a few yards out on to the outermost breached flood bank and saw the Short-eared!!! I was so happy I burst into song! Oh, and what else could I possibly have meant by 'hooters'?
Lapwing - 1500
Golden Plover - 200
Redshank - 40
Spotted Redshank - 1
Curlew - 30
Ringed Plover - 40 (majority in breeding plumage)
Snipe - 30
Knot - 20
Dunlin - 2
Sanderling - 5
Oystercatcher - 15
Black-tailed Godwit - 5
Turnstone - 8
Shelduck - 15, with further 30 or so out on mudflats
Mallard - 20
Goldeneye - 1 male
Little Grebe - 30, some engaged in courtship displays
Little Egret - 1
Greylag Goose - 2
Brent Goose - flotilla of what must have been 4000!
Canada Goose - usual few hundred round reserve
Goldfinch - 2
Chaffinch - 1 calling
Skylark - 10
Starling - hundreds
Great Tit - 1 pair hopping in hedges
Blue Tit - 1
Robin - 1
Blackbird - 7
House Sparrow - 20
Tree Sparrow - 10
Dunnock - 1
Wren - 2
Greater Black-backed Gull - 1
Black-headed Gull - usual, with few beginning transition to breeding plumage
Herring Gull - 5, 3 in breeding plumage
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2
Magpie - 4
Jackdaw - 8
Rook - group in field on the way
Collared Dove - 23
Woodpigeon - 10
Feral pigeon (Rock Dove) - usual group
Pheasant - usual in fields
PHEW!