The tide was out when I arrived so I spent an enjoyable couple of hours scanning the beach. For the first time this season, there was some number of waders to look at, with three
Sanderlings - the first returners - along with 20
Ringed Plovers, 10
Dunlin and nine
Turnstones. Best of all, though, was a flock of six
Common Sandpipers which were at first on distant sand to the east then flew west past me, close inshore. Intermittent seawatching during the morning produced two
Arctic Skuas,
Common Terns, a
Fulmar, 20
Gannets, four
Mediterranean Gulls and four
Sandwich Terns, as well as a
Sand Martin battling into the wind. 16
Little Egrets were feeding. I saw my first juvenile
Lesser Black-backed Gull of the year on the greensward. Yet again I left it too late, once the wind has well up, to start looking for passerines, and thus only five
Willow Warblers, five
Whitethroats and a
Blackcap represented the warbler tally in my notebook. However, four
Wheatears flying high north was good to see, and a further singleton was near the beach later on. Eight
Common Gulls were in the fields.
 |
| Common Sandpipers |
