Ferrybridge and Portland Marina
Dawn rang me on her way to work, to let me know that there were hundreds of gulls on the mud flats. Hoping the Franklin's Gull might be amongst them, I popped in there for a quick look before I headed back to Portland Marina to work on the boat.
There were certainly plenty of gulls, and I would estimate there were probably in the region of 350 Mediterranean Gulls, 6 Great Black-backed Gulls, 32 Herring Gull and 20 Black-headed Gulls, but no Franklin's.
Also on the waters edge were 129 Brent Geese, and dozens of Ringed Plovers, Dunlin and Turnstone. Three Little Egrets flew in and started feeding in the shallows, whilst in The Fleet there were several Red-breasted Mergansers.
Ringed Plovers and Dunlin come into land.
A couple of juvenile Ringed Plovers in amongst the adults
Top to bottom Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Black-headed Gull
As above
A Dunlin drops in front of the Black-headed Gull
115 Brent Geese
plus a few more
and another 3
Just a portion of the hundreds of Mediterranean Gulls here on The Fleet.
A Little Egret comes into land........
.......and immediately starts fishing.
Not in the Fleet but in Portland Marina.
This was a really confiding bird which was no more........
...........than 20 feet away.
In the back garden I had a new visitor to the bird feeders today. I'm not sure what the birds thought about it, but they didn't seem to bothered by the presence of a Grey Squirrel tucking into the sunflower hearts. Just hoping it hasn't damaged the feeders!!
When it left the finches all came back in numbers and it was good to see 3 Greenfinches in amongst the Chaffinches and Goldfinches.
Later I visited Wakeham Wood opposite the cottage. Sadly no Firecrest, but a lone Chiffchaff seemed quite happy to be following the several Goldcrests doing the rounds. Also here were 7 Redwing, 3 Blackbirds and 2 Song Thrushes.
Sadly no sighting on this day.
Not sure if this is good or bad. At least the Great Tit doesn't seem to mind.
If it starts eating the feeder then I'm going to have to buy some metal ones.
Once the Grey Squirrel had left it was back to normal services.
On the edge of Wakeham Wood are several Bramble bushes which are attracting the Goldcrests.......
........and this Chiffchaff.........
.........which has been here at least a week now. Sadly no sign of the Firecrest here though.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On this day..........
2017Sadly no sighting on this day.