Sunday 29th September

Two hours seawatching from 7.30am saw good numbers of Kittiwake heading south along with at least nine Arctic Skua, some lingering and eight skua sp, two of which were probably Pomarine, a Balearic Shearwater, four Arctic and a Common Tern.

A short afternoon watch showed little moving offshore as the rain arrived, but the conditions had driven many birds into the estuary. Counts were challenging with a constant movement of birds through The Bight, especially as conditions improved, over 50 Common and Sandwich Tern headed out to sea with an adult and six juvenile Arctic Tern, a flock of four and a single Arctic Skua and juvenile Black Tern and Little Gull.

Black Tern - Lee Collins

Little & Black-headed Gull - Lee Collins

Arctic Skua and Curlew - Lee Collins

With the exception of Oystercatcher, roosting waders were well dispersed with 56 Turnstone the only counts.  A minimum 92 Great Black-backed Gull were present, a good recent count of although with constant movement, actual numbers were likely higher. In one count of 83 birds, 19 were juveniles indicating a successful breeding season. 

Ringing News: Over 80 of the DCWRG ringed Oystercatcher were recorded today, an incredible return. These included several birds over 25 years, several new returns for the winter and enabled a couple of mystery birds to be resolved.

Unfortunately an increasing numbers of the individual colour-rings are becoming too worn to read in the field meaning they can no longer be unrecorded. The metal ring of one such bird was read today confirming the durability of the Oystercatcher previously known as 8Y, last recorded in 2020.

Away from Oystercatcher, recoveries included a 1cy Great Black-backed Gull from north France along with regular birds from Looe Island, Cornwall and Portland Harbour, Dorset; a Scandinavian ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Sandwich Tern from Cemlyn, north Wales.