A day of light rain showers until at least late afternoon was a very welcome experience after months of hot dry weather. I started the day off at the top of the Long Pits and it was mostly quiet until I came across a couple of foraging tit flocks amongst which were several Willow Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats but only 16 of each, also 10 Swifts SE over. I then moved on to Hanson hide, where Martin and Colin had earlier seen a couple of Wood Sands and Green Sands. One of the Wood Sands was close.
Wood Sandpiper
In addition to Martins sighting there were five Garganey in front of the hide.
Garganey
Several Snipe were visible from Hanson, the VC and Firth Lookout.
Snipe
Pintard
Whilst watching the Common Tern colony from Firth, an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull predated one of the tern chicks. I wanted to know how many chicks there were as I knew of at least two other predation events by gulls on the colony, so I stomped to the back of Burrowes and was able to get a better view of the colony.
I counted at least 12 chicks, one of which was a week old and the others mainly three weeks old. When I returned to Firth I could see another four chicks from that side, so a total of at least 16 chicks. Lets hope some survive the gull onslaught! There are six chicks in this photo and what looks like a dead Sand Martin on the shingle to the right of the standing adult Common Tern.
Both Black Terns and the White-winged Black Tern were still showing from Firth.
Black Tern
Black and White-winged Black Terns
White-winged Black Tern
Three Bar-tailed Godwits appeared on the mud in front of Firth along with over 30 Dunlin and Ringed Plovers.
Bar-tailed Godwits
Mostly adult Dunlin, I think there is one juvenile in the shot, Ringed and Little-ringed Plover.
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