Another evening visit to the Meadow found it to be on great form which I enjoyed in the company of Steve Jennings and Paul Jepsom who did much of the donkey work in counting all the waders for me! To start off, as I was walking through the cattle towards the floods I heard the unmistakable call of a YELLOW WAGTAIL, the first of the return passage. There was a reasonable gull roost tonight with the birds spread out along the main South Channel. Also in this area were two OYSTERCATCHERS and 12 of the total of 14 DUNLIN that were present. The main wader action though was happening in the North Channel. In this area there was just one remaining WOOD SANDPIPER and now just two juv. REDSHANK but COMMON SANDPIPER numbers had gone up to 7 with one bird appearing to have a damaged wing or at least some bent primary feathers that I first noticed yesterday. Adding to the wader count there were one GREEN SANDPIPER, one RINGED PLOVER, three LITTLE RINGED PLOVER and a skulking SNIPE. To finish things off I managed to pick out a couple of juvenile MEDITERRANEAN GULLS in the roost. Certainly a good evening on the Meadow!
Because I'm visiting the Meadow so late in the day at present, the light is
usually too poor for any photographs so once more I'm relying on Roger
Wyatt's excellent skills with this Wood Sandpiper shot. (c) Roger Wyatt.
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