On Spring high tides at appropriate times of the year the incoming sea congregates the waders reasonably close to the sea-front. If the tide is too high the birds will move away to various high-tide roosts. I arrived about 90 minutes before high tide which on this day was two days away from the bi-monthly highest tide.
There is plenty of parking along the front – at least during weekdays when schools are in session.
For this visit almost all birds stayed some way away and a telescope was needed to find the more unusual species. Some photos, judiciously edited, show some of the highlights.
Some quite sizeable groups. Same two species.
Typical head down frantic feeding by a quartet of Dunlin.
Note "By coincidence this video HERE, must have been taken through a telescope of one of the other birders standing almost alongside me and follows two Curlew Sandpipers as they frantically feed. Longer, slightly more decurved bill than a Dunlin and cleaner-looking underparts
And another much-wanted species and the smallest wader present. In the front is a Little Stint. Note the thin bill and the pale belly. Leg colour (black here) separates from the rare Temminck's Stint.
Further away were a few(!) Oystercatchers, here put to flight. The few gulls are made of sterner stuff – four Great Black-backed Gulls with two Herring Gulls between them. One of the wind turbines in the distance. There were Bar-tailed Godwits and Knots standing with the Oystercatchers but I cannot locate any in the photo.
Did I see gulls? All these are Herring Gulls, one calling loudly – the sound of the sea-side. A few immatures with dark extending further along the wings.
A close-passing gull. The bill struck me as rather large and I wondered about a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull. However the head of this species at all ages is obviously white and the paler inner primaries would be more restricted. So this has to be a large male juvenile Herring Gull.
This collection of gulls shows a few adult Great Black-backed Gulls with one passing and showing extensive wing-moult with the outer four primaries still to be dropped and the regrowing secondary coverts showing the white bases to the secondaries. The rest are Herring Gulls. I am not sure why the bird at the top right looks slightly darker on the mantle. It is an immature bird with dark on the bill but that does not seem to explain it away.
The only Lesser Black-backed Gull I noted is this standing adult even showing yellow legs. The very dark juvenile flying past is a juvenile Herring Gull.
Another closer passing gulls. This is a Common Gull with a slightly darker mantle, more white in the wing-tip and a rather weak bill with a band across it. In winter it acquires this head-spotting which often looks like a necklace.
(Ed Wilson)
A surprising fly-by: a trio of Shelduck.
And here Herring Gulls at rest. More brown immatures.
On the distant sea line there was a large group of terns also put to flight. All but one are Sandwich Terns. The few darker individuals are juveniles. The smaller bird on the top right is likely a Common Tern – separation from Arctic Tern is not possible at this range."
(Ed Wilson)