Rock pipit 2
Grey plover 50
Bar-tailed godwit 50
Black-tailed godwit 50
Wigeon 1000s
Ross's goose 1
Pink-footed geese
Cormorant 500
Plus hundreds of shelduck, curlew, redshanks, lapwings, pintail, teal, skylarks and thousands of gulls!
It's hard to put into words just how fabulous the dunlin were, and no photo can do them justice. Flying in formation, glistening dazzlingly white when the sunlight caught their bellies, yet almost disappearing when they turned their dark backs to us, they twisted and turned, sometimes flying right over our heads, at other times snaking away into the distance, they were like some huge living organism. One of the great sights of nature, every bit as good as the Serengeti and a lot cheaper!
Today was a very different day to yesterday, much sunnier and much warmer, we walked a circular walk all around the perimeter of Marshside, admiring the huge wigeon flocks on the inner marsh every bit as much as the aerial displays of the waders on the outer. Many of the star species from yesterday we didn't see today, but that's most likely because we didn't stay in one place, we kept moving, eager for the next rush of adrenaline and excitement. The bare list of species seen this weekend and a few photographs which are the equivalent of postage stamp sized windows onto this magnificent spectacle don't begin to portray the experience. I'm exhausted!
How many dunlin are in this photo? This was one of about five such flocks, which I estimated totalled at least 10,000 birds altogether. If you don't agree, please feel free to count the birds in this photo and multiply by five and let me have the answer on a postcard and I'll gladly change it!
Cormorants, gulls and waders on the last remaining island before the flood. Anybody else wonder if the flying gull just below dead centre of the photo is a Mediterranean gull?
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