Friday's birding

An unusual gull was in the roost at high tide

An unusual gull was in the roost at high tide and appears to be a Great Black-backed Gull, with a difference. A nice variety of birds were on offer this morning around the reserve, including all three species of egret from the Estuary Tower.

Knott Hide
The Great White Egret was back on the Pillbox Pool, also viewable from the Estuary Tower.

South Lake
Two Green Sandpiper were on the wader scrape this morning with 102 Lapwing, 18 Snipe, 44 Shoveler, 18 Redshank, 189 Black-tailed Godwit and 12 Ruff. The deep lake held a single Pintail and Pochard, plus 19 Tufted Duck. Across the whole area were a total of at least 598 Greylag Geese.

Estuary Tower
At least three Ringed Plover and nine Dunlin were on the last of the mud as the tide rose, which eventually pushed up 120 Curlew into the roost. The gull roost contained 22 Great Black-backed Gull including an albino bird (or possibly extremely leucistic). Five Cranes were on the Dumbles and the flock of 19 Wigeon were on the lower saltmarsh. The other two species of egret could be seen from the tower - the two Cattle Egret with the cattle in front of the Zeiss Hide and Little Egret out on the river.

Rushy Hide
Counts this morning included 77 Teal, 94 Lapwing, three Shoveler, seven Snipe and 57 Mallard.

Zeiss Hide
The Spotted Redshank was present this morning along with two Cattle Egrets with the English Longhorn cattle. A pair of Cranes were also seen.

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