GEDSER - 8th August

A strong SW wind through the morning limited how many nets I could open so the conditions only yielded 19 new birds including 3 Icterine Warblers (young, unmoulted, local juveniles, not migrants), 3 Redstarts and 6 Lesser Whitethroats.   A Turnstone and some Crossbills were heard going over the garden somewhere in the wind.

                A couple of hours out on the point (1300-1500) in the now even stronger winds produced a few bits, highlighted by an Osprey heading south low over the sea while other birds included 2 Wood Sandpipers, a Dunlin, 5 Whimbrel, 29 Common Terns, 6 Arctic Terns, 62 Sandwich Terns, a Velvet Scoter, 31 Tufted Ducks, 32 Teal, 7 Common Scoter, a Great-crested Grebe, a juvenile Marsh Harrier and 10 Swifts; the most unusual sighting however was a Red Squirrel gambolling around right out on the tip, seemingly without a care in the world!

                I then walked north a little bit to see if there were any more raptors heading south and managed another Osprey, a Sparrowhawk and 5+ Kestrels (although these weren’t migrating) along with a few Terns offshore and 3 Common Sandpipers while the Goosander flock had risen to 41.

 

Both juvenile Common and Arctic Terns were fishing just offshore north of the point