A pleasant circular walk - Lawrenny, Garron Pill, Lawrenny - this morning. Great Spotted Woodpeckers were drumming from both sides of the river and in Lawrenny Woods several Stock Doves and Wood Pigeons were calling. A Kingfisher flew from the waters edge in a blur of azure blue.
At Garron Pill a Peregrine passed by carrying prey. In fields over the other side of the Pill there were 300+ Lapwing in a ploughed field whilst at the riverside there were 19 Shelduck, 25 Curlew, 20 or so Redshank, 1 Greenshank and a scattering of Wigeon and Teal. Near the head of the Pill 2 Jack Snipe rocketted up from beneath my feet.
I sat for a while in the car overlooking the Cresswell River where there were a few Redshank, Wigeon, Teal and 23 Shelduck. A lone Great-crested Grebe was out in the middle of the river. A group of Dunlin flew in - I reckoned 200 or so and started to count them. As I was halfway through the group they all got up and a Sparrowhawk swept in and plucked one out. It flew off into some trees to eat it's catch. So the count goes down as 199! Later many more Dunlin flew in as the tide dropped with a total of 700 or more.
