GEDSER - 6th September

A gorgeous, calm, sunny, warm day which was perfect for migration so for the first couple of hours over the garden there were thousands of Swallows, Tree Pipits, Chaffinches, Siskins, Greenfinches and most notably Dunnocks – at certain points the sky seemed full with calling Dunnocks overhead, fantastic stuff!   This clear, fine weather was not really perfect for huge numbers of birds in the nets despite the thousands passing overhead (they just carried on migrating without stopping!); we did however manage a decent 129 new birds through the morning with single Red-backed Shrike, Icterine Warbler and Marsh Warbler in amongst totals of 47 Robins, 19 Dunnocks, 18 Lesser Whitethroats and 10 Chiffchaffs with a couple of Spotted Flycatchers, Pied Flycatchers, Redstarts etc.   Yesterday’s stonking adult male Red-breasted Flycatcher was also re-trapped and had put on 1.4g since being originally caught.

                There were some decent birds overhead with the large numbers of common migrants including a juvenile Dotterel which flew south calling late morning, a Black Kite just to the north of the garden, a flock of 21 Cranes (probably the same flock as yesterday as it contained 17 adults and 4 juveniles), a Merlin, several Marsh Harriers and Sparrowhawks and a few ducks and waders such as Spotted Redshank, Golden Plover and Dunlin.

                I spent the afternoon out on the point (1400-1830) where there was a good mix of species passing by with a few more raptors than yesterday – 8 Kestrels, 4 Sparrowhawks, a Red Kite, a Common Buzzard and a Marsh Harrier; more waders with totals of 6 Grey Plover, 138 Dunlin, 2 Turnstone, a Curlew and 2 Bar-tailed Godwits but fewer ducks including 5 Velvet Scoter, 94 Teal, 63 Wigeon, 13 Shoveler, 2 Tufted Duck and 153 Common Scoter.

                Other birds included 52 Little Gulls (including an excellent flock of 30 juveniles late on), 4 Arctic Skuas, 25 Common Terns, another family party of Cranes (two adults and a juvenile), single Black-throated and Red-throated Divers, 3 Red-necked Grebes and 2 Swifts along with a steady stream of hirundines heading south – 10,000+ were counted through the day.

 

Dotterel record shot

Adults and juvenile Cranes

Marsh Harrier

This young Hodgepig was wandering around in the middle of the day eating fallen fruit off the lawn!