10th and 11th July


A cracking couple of days weather wise – calm, sunny and warm allowed us to put some good time in with ringing and birding; waders again dominated the log on the 10th as counts included 354 Golden Plover, 98 Knot, 36 Sanderling (a marked increase), a single Purple Sandpiper, 140 Dunlin, 32 Bar-tailed Godwits, 3 Whimbrel, 48 Curlew, 80 Turnstone and the 2 Red-necked Phalaropes still while 170 Common Gulls in the recently cut silage fields was also a slight increase.             
Despite the big numbers of Arctic Terns on the 9th seemingly moving off south in the evening (unfortunately taking the White-winged Black Tern with them!) there were still huge numbers lingering on the rocks off Bewan with 3,950 birds counted but nothing different could be found lurking in the flocks.   Landbirds were represented by 2 Chiffchaffs caught in Holland (an elusive over-summering bird and a new arrival), 3 Collared Doves and 23 Sand Martins.

Arctic Terns


                The cut silage fields were again the place to be in the fine weather on the 11th with a Black-tailed Godwit in amongst increased counts of 360 Oystercatchers, 72 Curlew and 400 Golden Plover; other birds of note included a Common Tern in amongst a reduced (but still impressive) 2550 Arctic Terns, the lingering Black-throated Diver and 2 Red-necked Phalaropes and a new adult Mute Swan turned up to annoy the pair on Ancum which have now got three small cygnets.

We're busy ringing Black Guillemots at the moment, they are at a wide range of breeding stages with pairs still on eggs and chicks about to fledge.   The mist-netting of adults have produced some interesting results including a couple of birds have were ringed as chicks in 1995 and 1996.

Black-tailed Godwit,   photos Simon Davies

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