I arrived just before a high spring tide and so headed over to DL’O hide to see what was roosting on the Estuary Scrape. There were 75 Curlew including a colour-ringed bird with yellow over red on the right tibia. Unfortunately it was roosting on one leg and stubbornly refused to reveal it’s left leg. This Curlew is from a foreign ringing scheme but without the left leg ring information it isn’t possible to pin it down further, I’ll have to keep an eye out for it on future visits.
I also noticed a smaller wader with the Dunlin. It was facing directly away from me with its head tucked away. Eventually it woke up and started to feed and I could see it was a Little Stint. The Dunlin all flew off but the stint remained. I took some video and was able to see pale tramlines confirming this bird as a juvenile. A good record for NO and my second in a fortnight. I heard a Green Sandpiper but couldn’t locate it.
After a coffee I headed down to the beach to try and relocate yesterday’s Black-throated Diver, unfortunately no luck. It was flat calm and quiet with three Great Crested Grebes the only birds I saw on the sea. 20 Swallows drifted over east and I heard a Dartford Warbler calling, another good record for NO. There have been very few following the Beast from the East 2.5 years ago. I finally tracked it down in the gorse bushes south east of the NP hide, near the beach fence.
There was only one Chiffchaff today and no visible passage of thrushes or finches. As we’re heading into Black Redstart time of year I thought I would finish off with a walk around the point. It was a bit of a long shot as there haven’t been any here for a few years now. I got out of the car and scanned the fence posts near the sluice gate and amazingly a Black Redstart popped up into view! A great finish to a brilliant day.
Patch Birding 