RSPB Cliffe Pools 26th August 2020

I did not quite get up early enough to get to Cliffe for the high tide at seven but still headed that way for a circuit of the reserve.

The wind was still blowing constantly and many of the birds were hunkered down including a group of Little Egrets tucked into a sedge bed in a ditch where they looked quite grateful for the respite.

A flock of Redshank whizzed over and I put up a couple of Common Sandpipers from the upper creek reaches as I headed for the Thames.

 

Common Sandpiper

The Flamingo Pool was disappointingly almost devoid of birds and the plovers and godwits had obviously already returned to the exposed mud. Four Ruff, two Dunlin and three juvenile Little Ringed Plovers were some compensation on the wader front but it was the two juvenile Black Terns that held my attention as they dipped down gracefully to pick invisible items from the surface.  They always fed facing into the wind and would turn to zip back to their chosen starting point. 

Black Tern

Spot the LRP

Two Sandwich Terns roosted with some Black-headed Gulls and 27 Common Terns including some very recently fledged youngsters.

Sandwich Terns

A Wheatear was my first of the autumn but I have still not seen a Whinchat yet while Yellow Wagtails got blown over at regular intervals. Down at the river there were a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls, an adult Med Gull and more Common Terns out fishing and I could see two patches of Avocets and five Harbour Seals up on the Essex mud as well as the distinctive shapes of a Bill Stallard and Martin Jordan birding the other side... they had all my missing waders.

Yellowish-legged Gull

Harbour Seals

Three Whimbrel and a Green Sandpiper tried to make up for the deficit and clouds of Starlings were working their way methodically through the flocks of sheep while the horses were close for a change.

Whimbrel

Ovoid Whimbrel

The walk back on the eastern side was very quiet although a Kestrel and female Marsh Harrier became my only raptors.  There were lots of Small Whites and few Red Admirals in the lee of the Brambles and I could hear Reed Warbler fledglings being fed by parents who should by now be stocking up their own fat reserves.

Red Admiral

There was not one wader of any description on the Radar Pool but the three Spoonbills were still present and I got a better look at the two ringed adults which looked like Right: metal. Left White-Black-White and Right metal over faded red, Left Black flag over Yellow.

Spoonbills

Great Crested Grebe

I climbed to the Pinnacle viewpoint and scanned around for the Osprey but had no joy so counted 162 Redshank and 77 Teal on the islands instead and heard my first two Greenshank of the day as I came back down. The Spoonbills had a fly round and you could even seen the black flag in flight – not that it was impeding it in any way. Little Egrets were hunting around the edges of every lagoon.

Spoonbills

It was quite sapping birding in the constant wind so I decided that lunch would be a better option once back at the car rather than plodding around another windswept patch.