Today has been a rather wild and windy and unfortunately, rather wet day. Still, a good variety of birds were on offer.
This Great black-backed Gull was spending much of its time out on the nature reserve, hunting Rabbits. It appears this is the first image of this species of gull we have had on the blog.
Sea watching was the order of the day with a decent movement of waders moving southwards. These include 83 Oystercatcher, 30 Dunlin, 7 Redshank, 6 Golden Plover, 4 Ringed Plover, 3 Turnstone, 3 Whimbrel, 2 Curlew, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Grey Plover and 1 Greenshank. Plus 13 Common Tern, 8 Shelduck, 4 Sandwich Tern, 3 Cormorant, 1 Gannet and 1 Yellow-legged Gull.
Land migrants seen included 6 Swallow, 4 Sand Martin, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Yellow Wagtail and 2 Swift.
This Acleris emargena has only been noted on a couple of previous occasions, despite being common enough inland.
Ringing: 2 birds ringed this morning in the form of 1 House Sparrow and 1 Linnet.