Some clear wader movements the last few days. The last remaining Greenshank, the Knot, and the wintering Dunlin have all departed. We were down to 8 Redshank on 9th, with none at all on 10th & 11th, but then 3 yesterday - presumably 'new' birds passing through. A nice little arrival yesterday after the wind turned around to the north. On our evening walk, 5 Golden Plover on the beach in various stages of moult to breeding plumage (very rare that we get Golden Plover here), 9 Whimbrel, 13 Ringed Plover and 6 Dunlin. but the Curlew down to just 2. Still a flock of Oystercatchers, perhaps 35, 10 of them were colour-ringed, we managed to read 8 of them.
We had our first Sedge Warbler of the year on 11th, and yesterday bagged our first Crabhall tick for a while - a Grasshopper Warbler reeling in the field beside the house. Our first 2 Swallows of the year passed through yesterday, battling into the northerly. Still 2 Great Northern Divers in the bay, and a Gannet seems to be fishing there every day.
Finally, 2 Skokholm ringed Great Black-backed Gulls on 11th, with a different bird on 10th - 1 was read with certainty, 1 99% confidence, the other defied us with a combination of poor light, distance and long grass!