Wet Wet Wet

It has been a pretty wet week - certainly when I had the time to visit the site!  Consequently, not much to report.

Snipe numbers continue to build and it's nice to see them all huddled together on the spit - 18 birds noted on the 21st was a jump of 5 birds and today there were 19.

There haven't been many gulls to look through on my visits and I haven't seen the big male 1st winter Caspian Gull again, though it has been reported a few times.  Highlights were a 2nd winter Yellow-legged Gull on the 21st in the pre-roost and a strikingly white-headed 1st winter bird at the roost on the 25th - this bird had several pro-Caspian features in isolation, but altogether fitted YLG much better.  The roost on the 25th also had 31 Great Black-backed Gulls - the first sizeable count of the winter - mostly adults, but at least a few 1st and 2nd winters noted.

The wintering Green Sand was seen again today and I was able to count some of the wildfowl: 74 Wigeon, 47 Teal, 32 Shoveler, 27 Gadwall, 20 Pochard, 31 GC Grebes and 1 Dabchick.  This gives a guide to the sorts of numbers of birds around at the moment.

The most notable find in the colour-ringing world was a Lapwing.  This bird was first seen on the 18th and I've seen it 3 times since, including today.  It is part of the large flock that spends its time on the spit (600 - 1,000 birds but varies each day) and it seems to like being on the near side of the spit, which is why it is visible!  The bird has a yellow ring above both knees, green over orange rings on the left leg and metal over red rings on the right leg.  Investigations seem to point to this being a bird rung in Germany, but as yet I have had no reply to my e-mail.