A good, fresh morning today with none of the chilly breeze that made yesterday a tad cool.
Straight down to the beach to check the gulls and see if anything turns up - 5 Sandwich Terns fishing just off the beach. A juvenile landed on the breakwater and an adult with a fish in its bill tried to get to it but was waylaid by several gulls who harried it until the fish was dropped.
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| juv Sandwich Tern going hungry |
At Kirkholme Point just 2 Little Gulls were on the jetty. It can't be long now until they disappear completely.
As one species wanes another grows in numbers - 47 Barnacle Geese flew in and landed on the water opposite Swan Island and slowly drifted east until they were off 1st field.
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| Barnacle Geese off 1st field |
A Sparrowhawk flew east just off 2nd field but I wasn't quick enough to get a photo. In the hedgerow past Snipe Grounds where there are elderberries and hawthorns galore there were 3 Willow Warblers, a Whitethroat and several Blue Tits feeding. The berry bushes are laden with fruit now.
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| Elderberry |
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| Sloes (Blackthorn) |
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| Hawthorn |
2 Red Admirals and 2 Speckled Wood butterflies were enjoying the morning sun.These butterflies were the first of a morning full of them - 9 Red Admirals and 7 Speckled Wood along with 3 white sp. Never seen so many Red Admirals before :)
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| Speckled Wood |
Into the hide at Decoy and on opening the window I saw......a Mute Swan. Nothing else. Just a single Mute Swan. I sat down hoping for something and 4 more swam into view along with a Mallard. Things were warming up then!! 2 Herring gulls went over followed by a Wood Pigeon, then, at last, a Hobby which flew east. 2 minutes later a Buzzard flew over the hide and a few minutes later a Marsh Harrier gracefully glided over the reed bed opposite the hide.
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| Marsh Harrier |
I left the hide before the excitement got too much for me.
On the way towards Southorpe Road a Kestrel was hovering over the field, making a decent total of 5 raptors for the morning. Not bad.
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