Saturday 22nd August

The one-eyed Melodious Warbler attracted a trickle of admirers and for most showed well in its favoured brambles beside the Back Path just beyond the flood wall, ranging  from Crocus Compound to Dead Dolphin Wood and in sunny spells sometimes foraged quite high up in Hawthorn and Grey Willow bushes.  

Melodious Warbler - Alan Keatley

Also present, eight Chiffchaff, six Blackcap, six Stonechat, five Willow Warbler, five Whitethroat, four Cirl Bunting, two Sedge Warbler and a Garden Warbler. The now familiar sight of passerine flocks roaming around the site comprised of at least 50+ Linnet, 44 Starling, 25 Goldfinch and 17 Greenfinch; also three Wheatear.

A Snipe and a Short-eared Owl rose from the dunes at Warren Point, a welcome return after its absence in 2019 and this is the earliest autumn record here since one in July 1959 and is only the second ever in August.

There can be few places where folks clad appropriately in drab and camouflaged clothing with optics and cameras are mixed in with people dressed in swimwear, or in the case of one or two less modest individuals wearing nothing at all; and whilst some were oblivious, others focused their attention on the flocks of small waders running around everyone's feet frantically foraging along the tideline on what little space remains of the eroded beach.  The moment, between groyne 9 and 10, epitomized the world we now live in today. 

Waterbirds counted during the high tide period in the estuary were 355 Curlew, 310 Black-headed Gull, 239 Dunlin, 213 Ringed Plover, 41 Redshank, 30+ Great Black-backed Gull, 24 Cormorant including a sinensis race roosting on Finger Point; 20 Whimbrel, approx 20 Sanderling, 17 Sandwich Tern, 14 Mediterranean Gull, six Shag, five Bar-tailed Godwit, five Common Gull, four Little Egret, four Common Sandpiper, three Turnstone, three Knot, two Great Crested Grebe, two Lesser Black-backed Gull, a Grey Heron and a Greenshank.

Also present the resident Slavonian Grebe and its security contingent of ten Mute Swan.  The storm-wrecked drake Common Scoter remained in the estuary corner and off The Bight for its third day.  Nothing of note was seen offshore.