Sunday 14th February

During the high tide, combined BTO WeBS and other counts produced up to 1,450 Oystercatcher, 658 Dunlin, 129 Grey Plover, 97 Knot, 53 Bar-tailed Godwit, 36 Turnstone, 22 Sanderling, 22 Redshank, 18 Ringed Plover, 8 Curlew, 40 Shelduck, and in the estuary 11 Red-breasted Merganser and the resident Slavonian Grebe.

The adult Bonaparte’s Gull quartered the main channel north of Warren Point on the dropping tide.  Two Great Northern Diver and a Great Crested Grebe were all that could be salvaged from the sea.  A Siskin was with 14 Goldfinch in the bushes and a male Reed Bunting appeared by the hide.

Déjà vu interest was provided by the re-discovery of a Darvic-ringed Dunlin and a metal-ringed Grey Plover, both last seen here together on 06 March 2015, and both assumed to be returning over-wintering birds.  The Grey Plover was ringed in Sep 2006 in Norway and the Dunlin in Jul 2014 in Poland.  And adding to the cosmopolitan feel of the waterbird assemblage, a metal-ringed Brent Goose was with us for its fourth consecutive winter, ringed Pyasina River, north Russia; see map below of ring origins.

Record shot of wader flock and Polish Darvic-ringed Dunlin from hide - Lee Collins