Friday, 6th June: Changeable, with sunny intervals and periods of heavy grey cloud with showers, and remaining blustery, with a moderate WSW wind force 3-4 early on, soon increasing to a force 5-6.
Bilsham Farm: I started with an early visit to the reservoir here, to see if anything had been blown in following the recent strong winds; it hadn't - and in fact the reverse was true, as there had obviously been a good clear out! All I could find on the water was a single Little Grebe, 18 Coots and one female Mallard with her brood of well-grown young. Not exactly a good start! Two or three Swallows were feeding nearby, a wind-battered Jay hurried across an open field and more distantly a Buzzard was patrolling the area, whilst most birds had stopped singing around the hedgerows, so time to cut my losses and move on.
Elmer Rocks: Given the blustery conditions I opted to head to the beach again for a bit of sea-watching, but this proved to be quiet also. A couple of hours produced a total of 15 Sandwich Terns and six Gannets moving west - with little else of any note. A moderate-sized feeding flock of gulls held just a few Mediterranean Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls amongst the throng, whilst along the beach were a Little Egret and an Oystercatcher, but there was again no sign of the Ringed Plovers. Several Linnets flew were in the hedgerows but there were few other small birds to be seen.
Sandwich Terns heading west were about the only highlights of a quiet morning
Thursday, 5th June: Back to grey and blustery weather with heavy cloud and rain at times, though mostly only light and intermittent, whilst the strong SW wind remained at force 5-6, occasionally gusting to 7.
Elmer Rocks (0900-1100hrs): I waited until the worst of the rain had passed before venturing out today and it soon paid off when a smart pale-phase (or pale-morph for the purists) Arctic Skua flew west behind the rock islands, fairly close in.
It was otherwise pretty quiet during my two-hour session, but a total of 14 Gannets also went west, whilst a Little Egret was briefly feeding around the rock islands and a Great Crested Grebe (or possibly two) was offshore. A quick venture out from my sheltered spot to check for yesterday's Ringed Plovers drew a blank.
Arctic Skua (light phase) passing Elmer Rocks and (bottom) Gannets heading west
Another late afternoon visit of an hour or so didn't produce much except four Kittiwakes and a Sandwich Tern going west, a Fulmar east and a couple of Oystercatchers on the beach.
Wednesday, 4th June: A dry, bright and breezy day, with some cloud and plenty of sunshine; the moderate WSW wind slowly increasing to a brisk force 5-6 as the day progressed.
Elmer Rocks: After yesterday's excitements in the strong wind, it was back to normal today, with little moving through. Early on, there was a massive flock of feeding gulls along the horizon, too far out for any specific identification, but also another flock of several hundred considerably nearer, the majority seemingly Herring Gulls, with at least a dozen Mediterranean Gulls amongst them. Two Sandwich Terns went west, as did three Turnstones, whilst four Oystercatchers headed east, and two Little Egrets were present, one feeding along the beach and the other roosting in fir trees near the rife.
The highlight though was the discovery of a pair Ringed Plovers on the shingle, acting in an alarmed manner suggestive of breeding. I won't go into further detail here, but please do take care if you see these birds on the beach and try to avoid them at present (photos below)...
Ringed Plover on Elmer beach; if you do come across them please do all you can to avoid these sensitive birds and don't allow pets to chase them, many thanks.
A part of the closer gull flock offshore from the rock islands this morning and (below) Little Egret roosting in a fir tree behind the beach, near Elmer Rife
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