Common and Sandwich Terns.
Recently Maer Rocks has been pretty devoid of birds and all the action has centered on the sandbars. The presence of the 'Surf Lifesaving National Championships' all this week hasn't helped but the state of the tide probably dictates how good it is. It seems to be best as the tide drops, before the major sand banks are exposed. This morning a group of c30+ sandwich tern were joined by a couple common tern (tern numbers seem to have dropped right off today with just 10+ commons recorded off the seafront in total). Five redshank dropped in briefly and were followed by 2 ringed plover. A little egret was feeding on the rocks early on and a kingfisher stopped all too briefly. A little later in the morning a nice group of c20+ juvenile shag were feeding around the edge of the rocks. Also seen were 5 common scoter. Two tree pipits and 2+ yellow wagtails went over.
On Orcombe Point there was 4+ whitethroat, 3+ phyllosc sp, 1+ dunlin, 21+ swallow, 1 swift, 1 wheatear, 1 curlew, 1 yellow wagtail and 2+ alba wagtail.
Mudbank produced 5+ whimbrel, 2+ redshank, c70+ black-tailed godwit, 9+ mediterranean gull, 1 grey wagtail, 2 ringed plover and 16+ common gull.
Sandwich and Common Tern.
Juvenile Shags showed well this morning. The Shags are normally feeding much further offshore.
Purple Bar - a small number of common moths were trapped last night. The trap was only run for an hour or so after dusk.
The brilliantly named Setaceous Hebrew Character - a very common moth. This is a second brood moth. The larvae feed on a number of plants including nettles.
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