Pat Haven

I had an early morning trip to Pat Haven yesterday, getting there before dawn the only birds on the way were a couple of barn owls.
A few gulls on the lagoon including black headed,common and lbb.
Not too many waders to start but plenty of redshank.Ringed plover,dunlin and knot were around but in much reduced numbers than of late.
A pair of little egrets were fishing around the edge of the lagoon and they were joined for a while by a heron.
A couple of vociferous greenshank roosted for a time and a single black tailed godwit kept in the deeper part of the lagoon.
Lots of shellduck appeared near high tide along with a single cormorant and 4 teal.
A bit disappointing really as there was no sign of any curlew sandpipers,ruff golden or grey plover or anything else remotely interesting.
Might be the last visit of the summer.

Redshank


Redshank


Redshank


Redshank


Black Tailed Godwit


Black Tailed Godwit


Greenshank


Greenshank


Dunlin


Grey Heron


Little Egret


Little Egret


Shellduck


Teal

Bank Holiday Birds

After finally getting my computer sorted, I've managed to update the blog with pics from the weekend.
I had quite a bit of spare time so managed a few trips here and there highlights were as follows.
saturday-Spurn arctic skua,great skua,manx shearwater,hen harrier,merlin,marsh harrier, whinchat, wheatear.
Sunday-Spurn spotted flycatcher,
Sunday-Pat Haven Curlew sandpiper,avocet,common buzzard,marsh harrier,kingfisher,golden plover,greenshank.
Monday-Curlew sandpiper plus common waders.

Some nice photo opportunities as the birds fed around the edge of the lagoon.

A Mixed bag

I was minful of the big tides predicted this weekend so I went to check out patrington haven on Friday night just to see how high it came up.
The lagoon was completely flooded leaving very little space for the waders but there were some perched on the extreme outer spits, amd one confiding golden plover landed within 10m of where I was stood.
On the walk down there were a couple of willow warbler,grey heron,yellow wagtails lots of hirundines and a distant marsh harrier.
There was also a pair of whinchat on the brambles on the opposite bank suggesting a small movement (13 were recorded at Spurn on Saturday).
Having sorted a spot I was back again before first light on saturday morning and got to the spit for about 5.30.
The river was already pouring into the lagoon , it was like a couldron and all the birds appearde to be whipped into a frenzy, I was only there 5 minutes when a large raptor shot over my head at what felt like about 3ft, it looped round and perched about 25m in front and I managed a few shots albeit in poor light.
The river continued to flood and wadres were whizzzing about all over the place.
Eventually the spit covered and it was all over.
I made my way back to the car and then on to Spurn.
There was a single snipe on canal scrape a few common waders on the river bank along side the road down to Spurn.
Not much on Beacon lane but a small seal on the beach at the end was a nice suprise.
Quite a bit going on at beacon ponds-all quite distant but plenty of terns and common waders.
All in all an interesting couple of days.