Thursday 21st September

Wildfowl are starting to build up in numbers with the first Brent Geese of the autumn today with 15 Dark-bellied in the morning and two Pale-bellied on the evening tide. In the saltmarsh were 490 Wigeon and 94 Teal although these were flushed by a boast doing a circuit from Eels Dock.  Wader counts included 140 Dunlin, 35 Ringed Plover, 26 Grey Plover, 22 Knot, 17 Bar-tailed Godwit, seven Greenshank and a Snipe although numbers dropped in the evening. Elsewhere 11 Mediterranean Gull and the Slavonian Grebe were in the estuary and when the early morning rain moved through the offshore visibility improved to reveal four lingering Arctic Skua and a Black Tern.