High tide roost
A busy morning with events this morning on the reserve making the most of the current series of high tides with highlights including the first Wheatear of the season, a Little Stint and Sanderling and the Spoonbill making an appearance.
A busy morning with events this morning on the reserve making the most of the current series of high tides. Out on the Nature Photography on Tour event, the group saw the first Wheatears of the season on the Tack Piece whilst the Advanced Birder group caught the high tide roost from the Zeiss Hide with birds including Sanderling, Little Stint and Spoonbill.
Zeiss Hide
An adult Little Stint and Sanderling were with a flock of 50+ Dunlin that flew around the Top New Piece and then headed inland as the tide began to rise. They returned over the peak of the tide with final numbers being 114 Dunlin, an adult Sanderling, adult Little Stint, 6 Ringed Plover, a Whimbrel, 2 Redshank, 2 Ruff, 54 Avocet plus 2 chicks, a Green Sandpiper and a Black-tailed Godwit, 107 Lapwing, 3 Snipe and 2 Common Sandpiper. The Spoonbill also made a late appearance around 12:30pm. A Peregrine was sat out on the sandbank in the river as the tide rose.
South Lake
The Black-tailed Godwit flock numbered 413 birds this morning and included 4 juveniles. Also on the wader scrape were 44 Redshank, an adult Little-ringed Plover with chick plus another juvenile from elsewhere and 11 Ruff. A Common Sandpiper was showing well, sat on the rails on the deep lake and then on the pipe in front of the Discovery Hide. Also on the deep lake amongst the Tufted Duck was an eclipse drake Pochard. A Hobby also flew over this morning.
