GEDSER - 17th September

Bit of a change with a strong north-easterly wind blasting the garden through the day; the nets were very quiet as 34 new birds were caught including 20 Robins but there were a few birds overhead with 2 Grey Wagtails, a group of 4 Ravens which powered through and a single Honey Buzzard with a few Finches and Pipits.

                We closed the nets straight after the standardised session was finished and headed out to the point where there were thousands of ducks and geese piling through to the south with the bulk made up of 1,800+ Wigeon (2,000 had been counted before we got there) and 2,700 Eiders (5,400 were counted before we got there) pouring through in big flocks.   Geese had also started with 400 Brent Geese and the highlight of a single Tundra Bean Goose with a group of Eiders while other duck included 300 Teal and smaller numbers of the usual Pintail, Shoveler, Red-breasted Merganser, Tufted Duck and Common Scoter with a Velvet Scoter and 2 Goldeneyes.

                Other birds were a bit sparse but comprised a Red-necked Grebe, 2 Red-throated Divers, a Black-throated Diver, 5 Little Gulls, an Arctic Skua, a noisy flock of 17 Cranes, single Peregrine and Honey Buzzard, 2 more Ravens, 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, 3 Knot and 3 Grey Plover while there were 2 juvenile Caspian Gulls in the stubble field just behind the point.

 

Eiders

Brent Geese

Part of the Crane flock

Honey Buzzard

Firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus