Another Caspian Gull off Mudbank this afternoon, shortly before 4pm. Difficult to photograph in heavy rain, and it wasn't around long before a train passed and it headed upriver. Best described as in first-winter plumage - this individual has many more new, grey mantle and scapular feathers than the last one.
Off Mudbank today - duck numbers continue to rise with c6/700+ Teal, 104 Pintail, 420 Wigeon, 48 Shelduck and good numbers of Mallard. Amongst the masses were 2 Gadwall and 2 Shoveler, as well as the Pintail x Wigeon hybrid and single Dark-bellied Brent Goose. Also of note - first-winter Caspian Gull, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 8 Common Terns, 17+ Greenshank (a record count for me, here in Exmouth), 9 Redshank, 12+ Knot, a very probable Curlew Sandpiper (unfortunately too distant to be sure, on Cockle Sands with 5 Knot), 13+ Black-tailed Godwits, 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, 2 Whimbrel and 5 Ringed Plovers.
In the moth trap last night - 33 Rusty Dot Pearl, 1 White-point, 1 Rush Veneer, 2 Turnip, 1 Dark Sword-grass, 1 Silver Y and 1 Delicate, but not too much else.
Off Mudbank yesterday afternoon - c390 Wigeon, 11 Sandwich Terns, 3+ Common Terns, 2 Mediterranean Gulls, just 5 Pintail and a Little Tern.
Juvenile Common Tern off Mudbank.
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