Once again, my afternoon off coincided with a very strong westerly wind which made for a somewhat challenging walk at Reculver. But I thought I would give it a try and see what I could see. Overall it was a very quiet walk with pretty much everything appearing to keep its head down. There were at least a few gulls heading west so I sat and watched them for a while.
A Black-headed Gull gave some nice views and appeared to have moulted into its full breeding plummage. They are handsome birds.
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| Black-headed Gull |
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| Black-headed Gull |
A passing adult breeding plummage Cormorant showed clear signs of moult in its flight feathers while a juvenile was facing into the wind and trying to keep its balance on top of one of the poles.
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| adult Cormorant |
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| juvenile Cormorant |
There appeared to be a small movement of Common Gulls and I saw 9 during my visit and I had fun trying to photograph them as they came through. The wind was certainly not making it easy to hold the camera still. All were going west.
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| Common Gull |
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| Common Gulls |
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| Common Gulls |
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| 1st winter Common Gull |
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| 1st winter Common Gull |
A Lesser Black-backed Gull flew west and the size difference, in comparison to a Great Black-backed, could be clearly seen when nearby to a Herring Gull.
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
A 2nd-3rd year Herring Gull gave some good views. I still struggle to age gulls accurately.
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| 2nd-3rd Herring Gull |
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| 2nd-3rd year Herring Gull |
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| 2nd-3rd year Herring Gull |
I could see rain clouds sweeping through, over towards the wind farm, but luckily they gave me a miss.
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| Rain clouds |
A Great Black-backed Gull flew west and I saw 6 of them during my visit.
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| Great Black-backed Gull |
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| Great Black-backed Gull |
On the walk back I saw a couple of Stonechat briefly and a couple of Oystercatchers were on the shore. When a dog walker came along the beach they flew but then circled back and settled back on the beach once they had gone.
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| Oystercatchers |
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| Oystercatchers |
A 1st year Black-headed Gull flew west.
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| 1st year Black-headed Gull |
Despite the wind a small flock of Linnet were on the sea wall together with a Meadow Pipit that had just landed following its parachute display. The Linnet were dropping down to the base of the wall and foraging there, before coming back up onto the wall again.
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| Linnet |
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| Meadow Pipit |
At the back of the oyster farm I could see a Carrion Crow dive bombing a bird and caught sight of a Sparrowhawk as it flew away over the back field sending up a flock of 25 Golden Plover as it went.
I finished off my visit with a pair of Herring Gulls at the foot of the towers.
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| Herring Gulls |
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| Herring Gull |
I may not have seen a large variety of birds today but I enjoyed watching what I saw and despite the wind I was pleased that I had gone. It will be nice, though, when the wind drops a bit.
Birds seen this visit include: 1 Blackbird, 5 House Sparrow, 21 Wood Pigeon, 5 Redshank, 6 Mute Swan, 2 Stonechat, 9 Common Gull, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 6 Great Black-backed Gull, Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, 1 Sparrowhawk, 25 Golden Plover, 10 Linnet, 5 Meadow Pipit, 3 Ringed Plover, 3 Turnstone, Carrion Crows, Cormorants
