A morning ringing session in East Dunes produced 9 new birds: 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Linnet, a Redstart, a Black Redstart, a Garden Warbler, a Blackcap and a Robin; and 3 retraps: a Robin, a Dunnock and a Willow Warbler.
A morning ringing session at Aylmer Avenue, by Mike Polling, produced 7 new birds: a Willow Warbler, a Goldfinch, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Robin, a Whitethroat, a Great Tit and a Dunnock; and 5 retraps: 3 Great Tit, a Blue Tit and a Whitethroat.
A partly cloudy day with increasing south-westerly wind, and some afternoon rain.
A wind-shortened morning ringing session in East Dunes resulted in 6 new birds: a Willow Warbler, 3 Robin and 2 Sedge Warbler.
A mainly cloudy day, with occasional light rain from mid morning and increasing south-easterly to south-westerly wind.
A rain-shortened morning ringing session in East Dunes provided 3 new birds: a Chiffchaff, a Linnet and a Lesser Whitethroat; and 3 retraps: 2 Whitethroat and a Dunnock.
A Corncrake flushed in the north saltings was a major rarity for the Reserve. Nearby, a Whinchat was on the Outer Dunes. Three Stonechat were on Rock Ridge with a Wheatear and there was a moderate passage of Swallows and House Martins. Little Stints were in the wader roost on the beach and on the Mere. Nine Spoonbills were on the Estuary.
Water levels on the Mere and Tennyson's Sands and Jackson's Marsh are now as low as they have ever been. Wader numbers are tailing off on them now as are all other water bird species numbers. Hopefully we will get a good amount of rain this week, probably Wednesday looks best to start to refill them and refresh them somewhat. The lagoons are now probably as low as they were when they were first dug out. The only area of open water left is in front of North Hide and Fenella Hope Hide on Tennyson's Sands and distantly from Jackson's Hide. The Mere is just a large expanse of rapidly drying Mud!
A morning ringing session in East Dunes produced 4 new birds: a Willow Warbler, a Linnet, a Whitethroat and a Lesser Whitethroat; and 2 retraps: a Whitethroat and a Dunnock.
A Bedstraw Hawk Moth was found in the East Dunes during the morning by Daniel Langston and is the just the 2nd record on the Reserve for the year. During overnight trapping at Sykes Farm, there was a 2nd The Vestal of the year attracted along with a cracking Blood-vein Moth to back it up. Also a Clouded Yellow Butterfly was around Rock Ridge this morning.
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Wheatear, 25th August 2025 Photo - Nige Lound |
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Bedstraw Hawk Moth, 25th August 2025 Photo - Nige Lound |
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Bedstraw Hawk Moth, 25th August 2025 Photo - Nige Lound |
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Blood-vein Moth, 25th August 2025 Photo - Nige Lound |
August 24th. Cloudy, with light south-westerly to south-easterly wind.
On the water bodies around the reserve were a Water Rail, 32 Avocet, 400 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper, 4 Green Sandpiper, 3 Spotted Redshank, 6 Greenshank, 1 Knot, a Little Stint and 15 Spoonbill.
The morning high tide count produced 1760 Oystercatcher, 2620 Grey Plover, 140 Ringed Plover, 70 Curlew, 1400 Bar-tailed Godwit, 270 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Turnstone, 46,800 Knot, 5100 Sanderling and 400 Dunlin.
The highlight of an evening sea-watch was an adult Sabine's Gull flying north out of the Wash with Sandwich Terns. It veered out north-east subsequently. Gannets were moving north at close range but Arctic Skuas were more distant. The beach roost held two Caspian Gulls with 400 large gulls and 500 Sandwich Terns. 13 Common Scoter were on the sea.
Other birds around included a Peregrine, 1 Marsh Harrier, 3 Buzzard, 1 Green Woodpecker, 140 Jackdaws, 2 Coal Tits and a Pied Flycatcher.
A morning ringing session in East Dunes yielded 2 new birds: a Whitethroat and a Linnet; and a retrap Whitethroat.
The last session (Number 12) of the Constant Effort Site was completed this morning, which is a BTO National scheme which has been completed every year for around 40 years by the Observatory Team. This resulted in 21 new birds: 5 Whitethroat, 5 House Martin, 2 Robin, 2 Blackcap, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Dunnock, 1 Wren, 1 Swallow and 1 Blue Tit; and 4 retraps: 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Long-tailed Tit. Many thanks to Mick Briggs for completing this years CES.
West Dunes nets were also opened which resulted in 19 new birds: 8 Goldfinch, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 House Martin, 2 Chaffinch, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Robin, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Dunnock; and 18 retraps: 11 Great Tit, 3 Blue Tit, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Lesser Whitethroat and 1 Coal Tit.
August 23rd. Cloudy, with light south-easterly wind.
A fairly quiet day in calm conditions. Good numbers of waders came up to roost on the morning tide and a small flock of Wigeon were new arrivals. The evening high tide showed up to 60,000 Knot on the beach. A Caspian Gull was on the beach but Tern numbers were much reduced. In the dunes, some pockets of activity involved all the regular warblers, three flocks of Long-tailed Tits totalling 70 birds, 3 Stonechat, and single Pied Flycatcher and Redstart.
A nice selection of waders on the Mere on and off during the day included 4 Green Sandpiper, 10 Greenshank, 3 Spotted Redshank and a Little Stint. A Roseate Tern was in the beach roost in the evening.
On Tennyson's Sands were 2 Dunlin, 3 Spotted Redshank (probably same birds as on the Mere), 1 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank and 20 Spoonbill.
A morning ringing session in East Dunes provided 7 new birds: 3 Willow Warbler, 3 Blackcap and a Sedge Warbler; and 3 retraps: a Blue Tit and 2 Whitethroat.
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Spotted Redshank and Avocet, 23rd August 2025 Photo - Tom Baker |
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Greenshank and Avocet, 23rd August 2025 Photo - Tom Baker |
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Dunlins, 23rd August 2025 Photo - Tom Baker |
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Green Sandpiper, 23rd August 2025 Photo - Tom Baker |
August 22nd. Cloudy, with light westerly wind.
A good variety of birds around today; 107 species recorded by one birder during 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening. Highlights included the first Pomarine Skua of the autumn, 15 Arctic Skuas, 2 Caspian Gulls, 2 Little Stints, a Curlew Sandpiper, a Wood Sandpiper, 6 Ruff, 4 Marsh Harriers, a Cuckoo, a Redpoll, a Bullfinch, a Pied Flycatcher, a Redstart and a Coal Tit.
On the water bodies were 1 Little Ringed Plover, 320 Black-tailed Godwits, 48 Avocet, 2 Common Sandpiper, 3 Green Sandpiper, 4 Ruff, 3 Redshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 11 Greenshank, 7 Knot (Tennyson's Sands) , 2 Dunlin, a Little Stint (Mere briefly in the afternoon), 16 Spoonbill and an adult Mediterranean Gull (Tennyson's Sands).
A morning ringing session in East Dunes produced 4 new birds: 2 Willow Warbler, a Blackcap and a Linnet; and 5 retraps: a Dunnock, 3 Long-tailed Tit and a Blue Tit.
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Mixed Waders including Little Stint. 22nd August 2025. Photo - Kev Wilson |
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Adult Mediterranean Gull, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Nigel Lound |
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Greenshank, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Jeremey Eyeons |
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Green Sandpiper, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Jeremey Eyeons |
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Black-tailed Godwit, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Mike Watts |
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Great Spotted Woodpecker, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Mike Watts |
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Muntjac Deer, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Jeremey Eyeons |
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Migrant Hawker, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Mike Watts |
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Migrant Hawker, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Mike Watts |
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Migrant Hawker, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Jeremey Eyeons |
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Migrant Hawker, 22nd August 2025 Photo - Mike Watts |
August 21st. Cloudy, with increasing north-north-easterly wind.
A morning sea-watch in the ideal conditions produced 2 Sooty Shearwater, 3 Manx Shearwater, 3 Fulmar, 1 Little Gull, 1 Red-throated Diver, 6 Wigeon, 17 Arctic Skua and good numbers of Terns with 172 Common Tern, 30 Commic Tern, 340 Sandwich Tern and 69 Gannet and 260 Common Scoter all moving north.
Two Goosander were on Greenshanks Creek and 2 Turnstone were on the beach along with a 3CY Caspian Gull and a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull.
On the Mere there were 3 Spotted Redshank, 10 Greenshank and 3 Green Sandpiper, whilst on Tennyson's Sands there were 58 Mallard, 53 Teal, 51 Avocet, 565 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Green Sandpiper and 27 Spoonbill. Also around were 110 Jackdaw, 1 Barn Owl, 1 Stonechat and 1 Crossbill (South).
A wind-shortened morning ringing session in East Dunes resulted in 6 new birds: 4 Willow Warbler, a Linnet and a Sparrowhawk; and 5 retraps: 2 Robin, a Wren and 2 Dunnock.
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Female Sparrowhawk, ringed 21 August 2025. Photo - George Gregory |