I'm in the process of producing a short documentary for my final media project at University, one of the sites featured is St Mary's Island. Awakening to glorious sunshine I headed down to film the waders.
John was already on the beach, at its northern end, where the majority of the birds were concentrated, being pushed gently closer as the tide came in. Sanderling, Knot, Dunlin, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover, Redshank, Golden Plover, Grey Plover, and Purple Sandpiper were all present, along with Rock Pipit, Pied and a single Grey Wagtail. I didn't set out to take any images, but snapped a few whilst filming.
Experimenting with a few filming techniques I noticed two colour ringed individuals, one Sanderling and one Turnstone, I've reported both, hopefully some info will be returned.
The wind soon began to pick up, as did the waves causing a very mobile group of birds to feed rapidly up and down the beach.
A quick stop in at Red House Farm on the way back was surprising, finding that last winters Tree Sparrows had returned. I'm hoping to get some boxes up over the next couple of days, to see if they'll hang around.
Since I got back from Scotland I seem to have been missing out on some really good birds, both on patch and locally. I caught up with the Lesser Scaup at Marden Quarry last week, today myself and SW headed over again, picking up his first lifer of the day, and some brilliant views.
Next we headed to St Mary's in search of the reported Yellow Browed Warbler, walking from Old Hartley a crowd could be seen on the horizon, we arrived to find a Firecrest showing beautifully, SW's second lifer of the day. Here's a few images I managed, but look here and here for some images which show the true beauty of this bird.
Spot the Firecrest
