Starting at a cold sub-zero dawn, 100's of Black-headed Gulls and some Common Gulls were coming in off the sea, many landing briefly on Poppit beach. 55 Oystercatchers here too with 2 Grey Plover and a Bar-tailed Godwit until the first dogs arrived.
On Patch a small high tide roost of 4 Turnstone and 8 Dunlin. A fisherman gave a good description of about 15 Greenland Whitefronted Geese over the estuary last week.
Totals from all the viewing points visited included 237 Teal, 192 Wigeon, 150 Canada Geese, 4 Little Egret, 52 Curlew, 3 Grey Heron, 5 Little Grebe, 28 Lapwing, 65 Mallard and 7 Redshank,
From Mallard hide there was a Kingfisher and 20 Snipe. 2 Goldeneye from Curlew Hide, just Teal from Creek hide and 3 more Snipe on the island at Kingfisher hide. From the river viewpoint there was a Grey Wagtail. A Pintail was seen here last week.
Lots of Blackbirds and Thrushes around the reserve too.
A large number of gulls are coming into the estuary late afternoon at the moment so well worth a scan for that rarity waiting to be found!
