Lots of visitors gravitated to the hide today to watch the spectacle of birds gathered for the lunchtime high tide roost, and for the chance of seeing any of the more unusual tern species seen recently. Whilst most small terns in the estuary today seemed to be foraging over Cockle Sands and The Ridge, including two Little Tern and 30+ Common Tern, the juv Black Tern eventually came over and spent time perched on a distant buoy.
Also present during the high tide period, 785 Oystercatcher, c510 Black-headed Gull, 321 Curlew, 238 Sandwich Tern, 181 Dunlin, 135 Ringed Plover, 22 Whimbrel, 21 Mediterranean Gull, 17 Cormorant, 16 Common Tern, 15 Mute Swan, 10 Common Gull, eight Great Black-backed Gull, five Black-tailed Godwit, four each of Grey Heron, Little Egret and Turnstone, three Bar-tailed Godwit, three Sanderling and single Grey Plover, Knot, Common Sandpiper, Lesser Black-backed Gull, and the Slavonian Grebe. No counts of 'tringas' today. Multiple Welsh and Dutch-ringed Sandwich Terns were again present today. Two Wheatear were around The Bight.
A few Swallow, an immature Kestrel and a lone House Martin, so far very scarce this autumn, flew south west. On and in bramble patches and wooded areas, the family (of 4) plus a pair of Stonechat; also eight Blackcap, four Chiffchaff, two Whitethroat, two Willow Warbler, a Coal Tit and the usual tit flocks and finches.
Wildlife news: a few Small Red-eyed Damselfly in tandem were on the Main Pond. One or two Emperor Dragonfly and Common Darter also present. Butterflies were still plentiful with a light sprinkle of Painted Lady and Red Admiral, lots of Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Common Blue still, and a few Speckled Wood, Small White and Green-veined White. Two Jersey Tiger, one of which flew over the car park, and can be met with throughout the site in the right conditions and singles have been seen over the past few days.
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