Saturday 21 March 2015

Goodbye Tractors

21st March

I've not been able to get out for several days due to other commitments so this was the first full morning at Seasalter. A very cold morning with a bitter northerly gale blowing made the 7 degs. seem like - 5 degs. below. However, a few short walks, one getting wet, didn't produce much, most of the big wader flocks seem to have gone. The other things that were on their way were the two tractors that had been on the beach for years, why now, who knows, they made a good vantage point for watching the high tide beach roost.  


I could only find 4 brent geese in front of the NRA pumping station and the dykes only held 4 teal, 4 coots and a couple of mallard. I walked out towards the conifers finding a few mipits, 1 reed bunting and 3 pied type wags overflying but the wind was keeping everything out of sight.  I saw three skylarks in the field opposite the Sportsman plus c.30 curlew and a marsh harrier overflew the area.

I returned to the beach roost site where c.60 turnstones were settling into one of the 'dips' in the stones trying to shelter from the wind. A flock of c.40 dunlin couldn't make up their mind  whether to stay or fly off although a couple remained on the beach with 11 sanderling, 4 of which finally flew off with the dunlin flock. It also signaled me to fly off to places warmer!



3 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Only a few days until i'm sure you will be posting your first Wheatear shots.

Warren Baker said...

Sounds colder than I was here, bloody wind!!

Mike H said...

Nice to hear about the patch Mike, new combo producing excellent results .