'Shore' Was a Good Morning!

With a nice day weather wise forecast and light winds I was up and out of the house at 5am where a few minutes later I pulled up at a Nightingale site. I listened for a few minutes but drew a blank here so moved on to the cliffs at Beltinge where I walked along the cliff top in the dark listening for Grasshopper Warbler. Again despite a nice dawn chorus I failed to hear any but they will be here soon I hope. The fog arrived quite heavily as I drove down to the towers and as the light picked up I made my way down the seawall to Coldharbour. From here I stayed on the coast and carried on to Plumpudding before walking inland and back via Shuart and Chambers Wall, quite a walk I have to say. A few good species were seen with the highlight being when Chris Hindle called to say he had refound the Shorelark at Coldharbour just west of the Wantsum outflow. I made my way there and after speaking to Chris and Anne on the way managed to find the Shorelark and have excellent views of this Reculver special. It was quite flighty but seemed to come back to the mound area so I positioned myself here and waited for a while and sure enough, it soon arrived and showed nicely allowing me to grab a number of shots in the sunshine.

Shorelark

Unfortunately as the cyclists moved through it would often fly off calling so after a while I left it to go about its business. A bonus bird for the year and always a pleasure to see on the patch. Other birds seen on the walk today included 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Curlew, 43 Linnet, 2 Pied Wagtail, 5 Shelduck, 13 Redshank, 13 Oystercatcher, 10 Meadow Pipit, 5 Reed Bunting, 4 Little Egret, 7 Ringed Plover, 2 Tufted Duck, 17 Turnstone, 5 Yellow Wagtail, 7 Sedge Warbler including 1 bird which allowed a few shots.

Sedge Warbler

There were 4 Skylark, 1 Blackcap, 1 Ring necked Parakeet, 8 Mute Swan, 4 Gadwall, 1 Grey Plover, 2 Marsh Harrier, 7 Dark bellied Brent Geese, 6 Sandwich Tern, the first of the year flew east, 1 Greylag Goose, 4 Sanderling, 2 Wheatear, 1 Corn Bunting, 1 Swallow, 2 Jay, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, another year tick as were 3 Common Whitethroat.

Corn Bunting

Other bits seen included 2 Long tailed Tit, 2 Mistle Thrush, 2 Red legged Partridge and as I passed the Oyster farm I could hear the birds going mad and a scan revealed a ringtail Hen Harrier, another bonus bird for the area. One of those sessions where all the bits of the jigsaw fit together, some nice birds, good weather and a few shots taken as well.

Shorelark