As I left the house this morning, three
Redwings flew ftom trees next tto a house a couple of doors down. Wildfowl are the enduring theme of patch birding at the moment and an eventful first few minutes of seawatching/vismissing at the Gap this morning saw an adult drake
Goosander pass east along the shore and a 1CY drake
Eider bobbing on the sea. Later, a flock of six
Egyptian Geese west over land was constituted an unexpected patch tick. Offshore 28
Red-breasted Mergansers and 23
Great Crested Grebes made up the numbers, while 10
Dark-bellied Brent Geese, three
Red-throated Divers, 36
Gannets, four
Kittiwakes and 16
auks - mostly
Razorbills - went through. The
Goldfinch tap was still on, with 160 heading east, along with 22
Meadow Pipits and 12
Linnets. The usual waders were on the beach, including 20
Grey Plovers and 16
Oystercatchers, plus a
Redshank but the high tide roost was again non-existent, the birds evidently using another site at the moment. Four
Lesser Black-backed Gulls (three adults and a 2CY) were in the roost field, along with eight adult
Mediterranean Gulls and two
Common Gulls. 23
Skylarks, a
Jackdaw, a
Chiffchaff and five of both
Goldcrest and
Pied Wagtail were also logged.
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| 1CY drake Eider |
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| Egyptian Geese |
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| three adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls - the scarcest 'common gull' here, with one of the omnipresent Great Black-backed Gulls |
