LANDGUARD - 12th August

 Pretty clear skies at first light but heavy cloud soon rolled in and while it stayed dry with light winds, it was overcast throughout the morning; the highlights comprised a Great White Egret which flew south far out at sea and a Nightingale (probably the one that was seen yesterday) found a mist-net mid-morning.   

A few birds heading south at sea today comprised 15 Black-headed Gulls, 3 Common Gulls, a Curlew, 5 Grey Plover, 29 Oystercatchers, 22 Ringed Plovers, a Sanderling, 2 Turnstone, 3 Whimbrel, 2 Shoveler and 13 Teal.   

Elsewhere 6 Barnacle Geese flew north, 8 Sand Martins and 6 Swallows flew south and 5 Willow Warblers were the only other grounded migrants.

Nightingale

I caught this Southern Migrant Hawker in the Heligoland trap this morning, there has been a big arrival/influx/emergence into the UK this year and this is the third record for the Obs after two in July. 

(not) LANDGUARD - 11th August

 A little jaunt north into Lincolnshire for a walk round Frampton Marsh RSPB in the morning produced a great mix of stuff highlighted by the long-staying, moulting adult 2 PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVERS on the saltmarsh, they initially weren’t visible but I picked them up on call flying in from somewhere inland to land in full view, just in front of the seawall.   

Other notable bits comprised a smart, breeding plumaged Cattle Egret (complete with extensive orange colouration) on one of the islands, kind of associating with 15 Spoonbills, 2 Little Ringed Plovers, a Whimbrel, 60+ Ruff, 3 Little Stints, 2 Curlew Sandpipers, 5 Common Sandpipers, 6 Green Sandpipers, 9 Spotted Redshank, 15 Greenshank and 3 Wood Sandpipers in amongst huge numbers of Black-tailed Godwits, Knot, Dunlin and Grey Plover as we were there over high tide, at least 3 Short-eared Owls on the saltmarsh fighting with Marsh Harriers and Kestrels and plenty of Yellow Wagtails feeding around the cattle.

Nothing really jumped in front of the camera at Frampton so here's a Lackey and the evidence that the Leaf-cutting Bees at Landguard had a busy summer (you can see where one was disturbed just before it could complete its cutting on the top left of the bottom leaf!)

LANDGUARD - 10th August

 A lovely, warm, sunny day with a light westerly breeze which was mainly notable for the first half-decent arrival of 21+ Willow Warblers of the autumn and whilst not a huge number it was great to see little groups of migrants flitting around the bushes!   

Other birds of note were thin on the ground but did include 10 Barnacle Geese north, 16 Common Terns, 24 Sand Martins south, 12 Oystercatchers, 2 Sparrowhawks, a Turnstone and 4 Whimbrel.

LANDGUARD - 9th August

 The weather was all over the place right through the day with numerous showers sweeping through, the wind picking up and then dropping down again and the sun appearing and disappearing every so often; once again the main interest was offshore where totals heading south included 21 Oystercatchers, 9 Grey Plover, 16 Turnstone, 8 Dunlin, a Pochard, 4 Sanderling, 9 Ringed Plover, a Bar-tailed Godwit, 12 Redshank, 3 Curlew, 8 Golden Plover and 4 Common Scoter whilst 111 Swifts also went south.

LANDGUARD - 6th August

 After some overnight rain it was a breezy morning bringing waves of clouds scudding across the sky, changing the light conditions over the sea every five minutes but despite this sometimes-challenging seawatching, that’s where most of the day’s interest lay.   Totals heading south today comprised 18 Bar-tailed Godwits, 66 Common Terns, 21 Curlew, 3 Dunlin, a Gadwall, 9 Golden Plover, a Greenshank, 24 Grey Plover, 4 Knot, 7 Oystercatchers, a Redshank, 4 Ringed Plover, a good 60 Teal, 10 Tufted Ducks and 7 Whimbrel.   

The odds and ends over the land included a Hobby south in the afternoon, a House Martin, 109 Swifts, a Willow Warbler and yesterday’s Wheatear still.

LANDGUARD - 5th August

 Wonderfully flat calm first thing with plenty of sunshine and a slowly increasing onshore breeze eventually bringing cloud and a few spots of rain by early evening; there was a good selection of birds heading south over the sea through the morning which comprised a Spotted Redshank – a Landguard tick and the first one here since 2015 which flew past with four Redshanks, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits, 5 Curlew, a Dunlin, 2 Grey Plover, 18 Oystercatchers, 4 Turnstone, 17 Whimbrel, 27 Common Scoter, 35 Teal and a 3 Pochard.   

On the land, birds included the first Wheatear of the autumn, a Green Woodpecker which eventually found the Heligoland trap, 2 Sand Martins, 6 Swallows and 4 Barnacle Geese which flew north.

Green Woodpecker

(not) LANDGUARD - 4th August

 Lovely, calm and sunny for a walk round Minsmere from first light; the highlights were inevitably the smart wader duo that have been present for the last couple of days with great views of a PECTORAL SANDPIPER and a WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER, both on East Scrape, sometimes together in the same scope view.   

Other birds round the reserve included a fine array of waders comprising 220+ Avocets, 2 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Whimbrels, 125+ Black-tailed Godwits, 6 Turnstone, 6 Ruff, 25+ Dunlin, 3 Snipe, 6 Common Sandpipers, 7 Green Sandpipers and 19+ Spotted Redshanks as well as a single Little Gull, 30+ Little Terns (including a few smart juveniles – apparently not from anywhere local), one Bittern in flight, a Hobby, 4 Woodlarks on Whin Hill, a single Dartford Warbler along the front and my first returning Wheatear of the autumn on the beach.   

A little look at Melton on the way back then produced some good wader counts including 432 Black-tailed Godwits and 13 Greenshank – both the highest numbers I’ve seen here so far.

A couple of White Admirals

Wheatear

Cool looking Zonaria volucella - a pretty big, Hornet-mimicing Hoverfly