latest sightings Monday 3rd September
One osprey was showing most of the day, perched on a log eating a fish in the morning and then flying along the merse being mobbed by a group of shelducks. Duck numbers are still good with 450 teal in Prince Philip's field and another 152 on the Folly pond. 23 shoveler and two wigeon were also on the Folly pond with 3 black-tailed godwits. The mute swan family are still ruling the roost on the whooper pond with another 20 mutes around denied access to the feeds. It will all change in a month or so when the whoopers arrive. A peregrine was hunting over the merse which was ignored by the 320 canada geese grazing there. A sparrowhawk was chasing blackbirds in Saltcot loaning as a whimbrel called fro over head. Two dry days in a row, almost unheard of this summer.
