Slav Grebe off Climping Beach

Apologies for the poor quality shot's

With the sea flat calm no wind and a sea fog, I didn't spend a great deal of time sea watching off Climping this morning, but did produce 1 Slavonian Grebe with 15 Great-crested Grebe. Bar-tailed Godwit at West Beach and just  2os Teal, a few Common Scoter, Red-breasted Mergansers,  and small flocks of Sanderling, moving east. Quick look around Bailiffscourt  turned up 1 Bullfinch and 2 Goldcrest.

A lovely cold bright sunny day produced 1 Firecrest at the mill, also 2 Bullfinch and 1e Redpoll. Nearby 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Goldcrest, 15 Linnet, and 30 Pied Wagtail in the fields north of the Mill. 3 Stonechat at West Beach along with 12 Meadow Pipit. Offshore 4e Red-throated Diver, 21os Wigeon os, 18os Common Scoter, 12os Great-crested Grebe,  and 42os Brent Geese. 2w Dunlin , 2 Lapwing, 2 Grey Heron,  20 Grey Plover, and 1 Redshank in the river.

Highlight of the day a splendid female Lapland Bunting. Took a different route around the patch today by going down to the dunes on West beach first thing. Just got to start of dunes (8.20am) when I noted two birds overhead, one was obviously a meadow pipit the other was calling and clearly not a meadow pipit. Both landed some twenty feet away from me on the shingle. Clear straight away that one was a Lapland bunting. Gave excellent views before flying onto the French around the earth digging machine on the beach. Again gave excellent views before eventually flying off north east. Looked for it for two hours but no luck, reed buntings and meadow pipits in the area.
Snow bunting reported from same spot last week; was shown photographs of the bird by another local birder.

Peregrine 2
Stonechat 4
Brent geese 100
Sanderling 68
Med Gull 2
Grey Plover 5
Rock Pipit 1
Reed Bunting 4
Common Scoter 4
Great-crested Grebe 1

As ever with the patch just when it looked a bit dull a few things turned up. Three groups of Brent geese on the fields 160+ but chased away by the local buzzard! Then three groups of common scoter, all started on the sea but eventually flew east, some excellent views. Further details below;

Peregrine 1
Buzzard 1
Kestrel 1
Teal 1
Shelduck 3
Common scoter 103
Brent geese 160+
Med gull 3
Little egret 1
Oystercatcher 38
Turnstone 40
Dunlin 1
Sanderling 38
Grey plover 6
Great crested grebe 8
Cormorant 64
Diver sp 2E
Auk sp 1E
Gannet 1
Stonechat 3
Chiffchaffs 1

Records for 21/11
Mid afternoon, I took a quick stroll around Marsh Farm as I haven't covered it for a while, good assortment on the big pool with 37 Gadwall, 40 Teal, 24 Wigeon, and 1 Little Grebe In and around the Fram  2 Firecrest, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Yellowhammer, 50 Fieldfare, 7 Redwing, and 2 Buzzard.

Seawatching from the patch this morning was fairly productive but a lot of the birds too distant, 4w Red-throated Diver, 1e Diver sp, 9w Eider, 1w Auk sp, 13e 2w Gannet, 17 Med Gull, 3 Great-crested Grebe, 75e 7w Common Scoter, 33w Brent Geese, c100w Teal,  5w Tufted Duck, 130w Oystercatcher, 45 Grey Plover, 23 Sanderling, 60 Lapwing, 3 Golden Plover, 1 Peregrine, 1 Buzzard, 1 Grey Heron, and 1 Little Egret.

Bar-tailed Godwit West Beach

Turnstone

Grey Partidge just a few left in the patch

Very quiet offshore this morning with 8 Great-crested Grebe, 5w Brent Geese, 4e Common Scoter, 1 Med |Gull and 12 Red-breasted Mergansers. Not a lot better inland but a least 4 Firecrest present in and around Bailiffscourt, 5 Goldcrest and 2 Buzzard.

Sightings for Mon 18/11
3 Redshank, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1e Golden Plover, 18 Lapwing, 20 Sanderling, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 28 Meadow Pipit, 2 Goldcrest, 7 Grey Partridge and a Sparrowhawk.

Sea watch from Climping car park this morning produced plenty of Brent Geese moving with 36e 292w.  Also 3e Eider, 15w Wigeon, 8e 8w Common Scoter, 1w Red-throated Diver, 10w Red-breasted Merganser, 18w Dunlin, 1 Great-crested Grebe, 1w 1e Med Gull and 1w Curlew. In and around the bushes small numbers of Redpoll heard moving east and a couple of Siskin, 1-2 Bullfinch, 3 Firecrest, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Treecreeper, 3 Goldcrest, 2 Kestrel, and a Sparrowhawk.

Records for Sun 10/11

Combined totals today could only muster a late Willow Warbler, also 1 Wheatear, 3 Chiffchaff, 4 Stonechat, 2 Grey Wagtail, 11 Pied Wagtail, 5 Meadow Pipit, 12 Linnet, 3 Siskin,  1 Reed Bunting, 2 Blackcap, 8 Goldcrest, 1 Water Rail, 3 Buzzard, 7 Grey Partridge, 10 Grey Plover, 1e Med Gull, 1e Little Egret, 2 Redshank ,3 Grey Heron, 1w Brent Goose, and 300 Wood Pigeon.

Well it had been a poor day, by the time I got to Atherington the bird of the day had been a gold crest! As I got to the sea front I noted that the tide was very, very high, suddenly a large skua flew west along the tideline no more than twenty feet away from me. It showed all the features of a pomarine skua, the double white patch under the wing showing very well. Amazing! It then came back! It attacked three herring gulls and eventually sauntered off towards the south west.
Other than that not much around.

Very quiet in the woods in the blustery conditions, offshore 70w Brent Geese, 2 Med Gull c200 Turnstone early afternoon at West Beach and a Redshank in the River .

Med Gull

Redshank

A good variety in the patch this morning, in what turned out to be a glorious day, the highlight being a  Merlin, east over bread lane at 10:00 Totals for the day are, 1 Buzzard, 1 Firecrest, 3 Wheatear, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 2 Stonechat, 1 Redpoll, 3 Siskin, 5 Goldcrest,   50 Meadow Pipit, 1 Grey Wagtail, 30 Pied Wagtail, 130 Goldfinch, 2 Little Egret, 3 Grey Heron, 7 Grey Partridge, 1 Redshank, 20w Sanderling, 6w Brent Geese, and  5 Med Gull.

Meadow Pipit

Wheatear

Grey Wagtail

Very quiet in and around West Beach mid morning, with 2 Stonechat, 12 Meadow Pipit, 1w Med Gull, 4w Brent Geese.  At Longwood behind the Mill Cottages, 2-3 Firecrest, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Sparrowhawk, 7 Grey Partridge in the fields plus 2 Goldcrest First Wood.