Offshore a 1hr early morning seawatch saw 80 Gannet and 12 Balearic Shearwater, head SW with a similar number of distant shearwater sp. A total of 54 Common and 41 Sandwich Tern flew S out of estuary at dawn, with at least 1400 Herring Gull on Pole Sands as the tide dropped - feasting on Exmouth's sewage.
Exmouth refused to share it's Osprey though, a distant bird again visible over Mudbank late morning. Also in the estuary a juvenile Little Tern, with 73 Sandwich and five Common Tern, presumably returning birds. Other counts included 246 Redshank, 180 Ringed Plover, 143 Dunlin, 12 Greenshank, nine Bar-tailed Godwit and Mediterranean Gull, six Eider, three Knot, two Sanderling, two Turnstone and a Kingfisher.
Elsewhere three Wheatear and two Yellow Wagtail were on the Golf Course fairways, a Willow Warbler was in Dead Dolphin Wood and three Sand Martin flew through.
Ringing News: Four colour-ringed Sandwich Tern were present over high tide, a juvenile from Holland and adults from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. A metal ring was also read on a fifth bird, this individual was ringed as a chick on Inner Farne, Northumberland on 12/07/2013 and was here during Aug 2016, 2018 & 2019 but not subsequently. Since then it has survived Avian Flu, probably flown over 10,000 miles and lost its colour-ring!
Other Wildlife: Late news from Saturday of two other new species for the Recording Area audit, Crystal Jellyfish Aequorea vitrina, a species being more frequent in warming seas, and Holly Aphid Aphis ilicis.
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| Crystal Jellyfish Aequorea vitrina - Alan Keatley |
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