(not) LANDGUARD - 1st August

 A good few hours at Bawdsey Quay first thing produced some good birds highlighted by a Great White Egret which flew south down the coast and a Wood Sandpiper on the saltmarsh at high tide; other birds comprised 13 Barnacle Geese oddly roosting with gulls on the shingle islands at the river mouth, a Cuckoo, at least 9 Mediterranean Gulls (six juveniles), a Red Kite circling over the other side of the river, a Little Owl in old building and single Redstart and Willow Warbler with a good number of more locally bred Whitethroats, Lesser Whitethroats, Blackcaps and Reed Warblers.   

There was little new at East Lane which was highlighted by a lovely, pristine, fresh juvenile Red Kite right over my head and a Common Sandpiper before a look at Hollesley RSPB produced a nice little array of waders including single Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper and Greenshank, 2 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Avocets and 4 Knot.

Great White Egret over my head at Bawdsey

Little Owl

Peregrine

Red Kite

Juvenile and adult Sedge Warbler

Grayling

LANDGUARD - 30th July

 Weirdly calm at first light but the SSW wind quickly ramped up, eventually peaking at around force 7 in the afternoon bringing a series of sometimes heavy squalls which swept through but also equal spells of bright sunshine.   There was again, a steady trickle of waders heading south at sea, never very many but enough to keep us staring at the sea; totals comprised (through the morning and another seawatch in the evening) 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, a Curlew, 5 Dunlin, 2 Greenshank, 11 Grey Plover, 2 Knot, 47 Oystercatchers, a Redshank, 3 Turnstone and 17 Whimbrel.   

Also over the sea were 7 Common Scoter, 11 Common Terns, 3 Gannets, a juvenile Kittiwake, 2 Mallards (always scarce on seawatches!), 3 Mediterranean Gulls, 24 Sandwich Terns, 8 Shelduck and a good total of 371 Swifts – mainly out over the sea.

Grey Plover

Whimbrel

Oystercatcher

Common Tern

LANDGUARD - 29th July

 Clear and sunny pretty much throughout the day but with a hefty force 5 westerly wind somewhat spoiling things; a little trickle of random waders heading south at sea was the day’s highlight which included 16 Black-tailed Godwits (given the hundreds that are currently up the nearby rivers and on wetland reserves, they are surprisingly rarely seen at Landguard), 3 Curlews, a Whimbrel, 3 Dunlin, a summer plumaged Golden Plover, a summer plumaged Grey Plover, 7 Oystercatchers, 2 Sanderling and 7 Turnstone.   

Other birds comprised a Grey Wagtail, 11 Sand Martins, 88 Swifts and a Yellow Wagtail.

Willow Warbler (from 28th)

Holly Blue

Southern Hawker

Copper Underwing

Marbled Clover

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

(not) LANDGUARD - 27th July

 A good morning spent at Minsmere produced a nice array of birds around the scrapes and along the beach; the scrapes were again full of waders including my overdue first 2 Curlew Sandpipers of the year, 250+ Avocets, a Little Ringed Plover, 350+ Black-tailed Godwits, a Turnstone, a Knot, 9 Ruff, 4 Sanderling, 180+ Dunlin, 2 Snipe, 6 Common Sandpiper, 4 Green Sandpiper and 6 Spotted Redshank along with 15 Little Gulls, 60 Little Terns and a couple of good fly-past Bitterns.   

The other highlight was excellent views of 3 Dartford Warblers singing and chasing each other in the gorse just south of the Sluice Bushes.

Bittern, Dartford Warbler and Stonechat from Minsmere; the camera settings were all wrong so they are not as good as they should be!

Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank from Melton

(not) LANDGUARD - 21st July

 A walk round Wyke / Benthall first thing produced all the expected bits and pieces including successful Little Grebe breeding on Benthall Pools again with two large chicks seen where there was also single Lesser Whitethroat and 5 Mistle Thrush.   

After getting my second vaccine (where there was a Norwegian ringed Black-headed Gull in the carpark!) I immediately drove up to Anglesey where, at Cemlyn Bay the long-staying ELEGANT TERN flew off the main island straight away as I walked along the shingle to have a little bathe in the bay before flying back to the lagoon to show brilliantly on the near side.   

It was ace there as always with thousands of Sandwich, Arctic and Common Terns making a hell of a noise as they fed hundreds of big chicks all across the islands and shore; other birds included a single first-summer Black Guillemot in the bay, a monster-big juvenile female Peregrine, 7 Little Egrets, 4 Mediterranean Gulls and a steady stream of Manx Shearwaters mainly heading west close into shore – it was very hot though so I didn’t walk around too much!

Elegant Tern

Norwegian ringed Black-headed Gull in the Telford International Centre carpark - it was ringed as a chick near Oslo in June 2015, amazingly then I re-sighted it at Horsehay Pool in January 2016, it was then seen in Sheffield in June 2018 and Sandwell Valley in February 2021.   I'm not sure whether it returns to Norway to breed, I would guess not as the June and July sightings are maybe a bit early for returning birds.

Sandwich Tern

(just) LANDGUARD - 20th July

 After a quiet morning at Landguard where the overdue fledgling Whitethroat of the year found the nets and a Yellow Wagtail flew over I drove back to Shropshire for my second jab.   

Look at a very hot Chelmarsh late afternoon produced 2 Common Terns, 2 Common Sandpipers, 4 Herons, a Grey Wagtail and at least 5 Yellow Wagtails gathering around the dam with 31+ Pied Wagtails.   Also of note and great to see were seemingly good numbers of Butterflies, especially Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers and Ringlets with a single Marbled White on the dam – I can’t recall seeing them in Shropshire before, although I haven’t really been there at this time of year for ages!

Nuthatch

Common Tern (taken the other day at Trimley but they looked pretty similar to the ones at Chelmarsh!)

LANDGUARD - 18th July

 Walked to Trimley Marshes first thing via Loompit and while there wasn’t too much different it was very pleasant in the fine, sunny conditions; birds comprised a good total of 309 Black-tailed Godwits, 4 Whimbrel, 5 Dunlin, a Common Sandpiper, a Greenshank, 33 Avocets, a good total of 36 Little Egrets roosting at high tide, a Kingfisher at Loompit (actually the first one I’ve seen in Suffolk since I’ve been here!) and a noticeable increase in ducks at Trimley since I was last there including c55 Gadwall, 9 Shoveler, c19 Pochard and 52+ Tufted Ducks.   

Also of note was a male Lesser Emperor hawking over Loompit.   

There was then a good gathering of birds off the point back at Landguard in the evening which included a good 27 Mediterranean Gulls (with the first six juveniles in amongst them) and 10 Common Terns while 7 Sanderling flew south.

Broad-bodied Chaser