Monday 4 December 2017

Goring, 4th December 2017

I scanned the sea and shore from the west side of Goring Gap this morning, picking up the Red-necked Grebe again on the sea before it flew east, as well as an eastbound Great Skua. Joined towards the end of the watch by Nick B and Clive H, logged by the time I left at 10:00 were 69 Red-throated Divers, 56 Red-breasted Mergansers, four Common Scoters, 44 Great Crested Grebes, three Gannets, nine Dark-bellied Brent Geese, a Teal, five Kittiwakes, two Shelducks, seven Razorbills, five Guillemots and a further 38 extremely distant auks. A juvenile Peregrine flew west offshore and one of the wintering Chiffchaffs remained at the start of Patterson's Walk. In between shopping trips I stopped off at high tide to count the wader roost which comprised 410 Dunlin, 66 Grey Plovers and 50 Ringed Plovers, along with two adult Mediterranean Gulls. Small numbers of Turnstones, Sanderlings and Oystercatchers had been along the beach earlier in the morning but the state of the tide did not allow meaningful counts of these species.