Black Hole Marsh and Med Gulls

Went down to the wetlands this morning for the high tide, and I'm pleased I did because Black Hole Marsh was packed full of birds.

Looking out from the Tower Hide

'ROL'

'ROL' with two friends

Over the following hour the marsh showed;

2 Teal
1 Water Rail
6 Lapwing
1 Ringed Plover
5 Little Ringed Plover (1 ad and 4 juvs)
9 Dunlin
11 Black-tailed Godwit
20+ Redshank (incl. a good numbers of juvs)
1 Green Sandpiper
11 Common Sandpiper
250+ Black-headed Gull

I really love late July down here, often the hides are quiet as the scarce species haven't arrived yet, but the marsh can still be packed full of birds. So much noise and it's always brilliant to see migrating waders taking a rest to refuel before they continue with their journey.

A species that wasn't on Black Hole this morning was Mediterranean Gull, despite the large gathering of Black-heads.  Unlike any other time of year, in late summer we always seem to get far more Med Gulls offshore than in the river valley.  Ian Mc had 14 (one juv) off the sea front at about 08:30 today, I went there about 45 minutes later and had a lone juv, a lone second-summer and then a group of eight (incl. 3 juvs), all making their way west. I'm willing to bet they were all different birds, making a morning total of 24 which is pretty good for us.

Lastly it was great to have a meet up with our new Reserves Manager whilst in the hide. In my opinion this is a very exciting announcement as James was here when the Axe Wetlands were first born, but now he has the top job...

James Chubb back in his natural habitat