Passing Guillemots and Flighty Knots - Shuart to the Sea Wall 19/09/20

I headed to Shuart late morning and as I was about to head up the track I saw some movement and a small group of Brown Rats were making the most of some spilled feed for the horse with the closest one to me allowing some photos.

Brown Rat

Brown Rat

Brown Rat

As I had a wander along it was noticeably quieter than yesterday and I could not see any sign of the Redstart or the Pied Flycatcher. A few Migrant Hawkers and Ruddy Darter were on the wing. The stables were equally quiet with no sign of yesterdays Black Redstart but there was a lot of coming and going with multiple people in the horse paddocks. The first bird I saw as I came up onto the sea wall was a Guillemot flying east which came as a nice surprise.

Guillemot

 Two Knot were working their way along the shoreline but were soon disturbed by people on the beach. As they flew past me I tried for a photo and liked the reflection of the wing shapes between them.

Knot

Knot

A few moments later they came back past me and settled down on the next section of beach. Unfortunately they did not get long to feed before there were more people walking along the shore and they flew back past me.

Knot

I had a sit on the sea wall for a while and saw another couple of Guillemots east as well as 30 Sandwich Terns that were disturbed from the roost together with 3 Bar-tailed Godwit. A Dunlin, with quite a long bill, was feeding along the tide line and gave some good views as it did so.

Dunlin

Dunlin

Dunlin

With walking not a strong point today and with the sea wall so crowded I decided to head for home but I had enjoyed seeing what I did.

Birds seen this visit included: 3 Kestrel, 7 Robin, 4 Magpie, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Wren, 17 Chiffchaff, 2 Reed Warbler, 1 Collared Dove, 4 Blue Tit, 6 Great Tit, 2 Cetti's Warbler, 6 Chaffinch, 2 Greenfinch, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 4 Pied Wagtail, Starlings, House Sparrows, 15 Linnet, 8 Goldfinch, 3 Guillemot, 2 Knot, 35 Sandwich Tern, 1 Rock Pipit, 29 Oystercatcher, 3 Dunlin, 8 Sanderling, 8 Turnstone, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 

More Drive By Birding - Local Areas 12th, 19th and 21st February 2020

On the 12th we paid a short visit to Marshside. It was very quiet for birds overall but I enjoyed watching a Mute Swan drifting slowly down the dyke that runs alongside the road and watching the reflection change as it was broken up by the ripples in the water.

Mute Swan

A pair of Song Thrush were busy feeding in a partially flooded grassy area and both were proving to be very adept at catching small worms and packed away a surprising number of them while I was watching.

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

We finished with a smart male Marsh Harrier flying parallel to the road. They are beautiful birds and always a joy to watch.

male Marsh Harrier

On the 19th at Chambers Wall I enjoyed watching a Chaffinch and a couple of Dunnocks that were feeding by a small puddle. Though at one point one of the Dunnocks appeared to size the Chaffinch up it did not chase it, as I have seen them do in the past, but instead went back to feeding. Again, it was nice to be able to just spend some time enjoying good views of some very obliging birds. One of the Dunnocks was ringed.

Chaffinch and Dunnock

Chaffinch and Dunnock

Dunnock

Dunnocks

We paid another short visit to Marshside on the 21st and at the first pull in point a Rat was feeding amongst the grass by the dyke. It appeared to be pretty unconcerned by the traffic passing by. A couple of Moorhen were feeding at the field edge and as a Common Buzzard passed overhead all dived for cover.

Brown Rat

125 Fieldfare were in the bushes bordering the apple orchard but I could not see any Redwing amongst them. A couple of Greenfinch were a little further along and a Green Woodpecker was calling away noisily. 7 Moorhen were in one area of the dyke with another 5 further along. At one point a disagreement broke out and in a flurry of wings the chase was on.

Moorhens

The visits were all pretty quiet for birds but each had allowed time to just enjoy whatever I could see.