A Beautiful Day!

After the storms of a few days ago, the weather today could not have been any better, blue skies, quite mild and little wind, just a brilliant day to be out and about. I met up with Phil Parker at Minnis Bay at 8.45am where at first we walked up to the riding stables to see if any birds were around. As we walked up I saw a lone Razorbill flying east and the first of 4 Little Egrets flew west. Birds seen along the shoreline included 36 Tursntone, 92 Oystercatcher, 24 Lapwing, 11 Redshank, 48 Sanderling east, 14 Grey Plover east, 29 Ringed Plover east and around the stables were 6 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, c60 Brent Geese, 1 Rock Pipit and a scan across the fields produced 1 Kestrel, 2 Common Buzzard and 1 Grey Heron. As we walked back 1 Wheatear was on the seawall and the surprise of the morning were seeing 2 Sandwich Tern resting which allowed the both of us to get a number of images.

Sandwich Tern

We then returned back to the cars where we decided to leave Phil's car at Minnis and drive around to Reculver and walk around the bushes and back down the seawall. Despite not being that much around the weather more than made up for it and in the sunshine a few butterflies and dragonflies were seen including 2 Migrant Hawker, 4 Common Darter, 3 Red Admiral, 2 Peacock, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 3 Small/Green veined White and a smart Clouded Yellow along the seawall.

Little Egret

After plenty of drink stops we carried on down the seawall where we noted c50 Carrion Crow, 1 Kingfisher, 5 Stonechat which allowed a few more shots but we were looking into the sun, not the best of shots but smart birds indeed. 

Stonechat

The only other birds of note were 1 Curlew, 1 Rock Pipit, c100 Linnet, 1 Peregrine and c100 Brent Geese. Although not the quality of birds we hoped for, it ended up being a nice session with a few birds noted and some nice company.

Carrion Crow 

Cormorant