In fact the beach was the main source of action. Spent some time watching a cormorant sitting on a pile of rocks in the first bay, wondering if it might be a shag - interesting to find on researching more today that, according to bird-x.com 'There is no clear distinction between the term "cormorant" and "shag". ' Now that I didn't know!
Some usual suspects started turning up, i.e. greenshank, redshank and sanderling. Further out some tufted ducks were fishing and once we passed a large outcrop of rocks, I was able to identify a pair of eider ducks even further out, messing around in the surface swell - so a first sighting.
On the way back to the pub, a large number of smaller birds were messing around by the kelp brought up by storms and I figured out they were rock pipits - another first sighting! By this time I was glad I had brought the bird book along, even though my fingers got pretty cold every time I got it out. Just heading off the beach there were a few stonechats in the dunes. I didn't need the bird book for them, but it was nice to see them again.
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| Stonechat |
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| Rock Pipit - honest! |
In fact the nature reserve, which was heavily flooded so the full path couldn't be covered, didn't have much to add to this. Apart from more 'shanks, there were some greylag geese on the far side of the pond, too far away to see if other species were among them - plus a few wigeon and a single lapwing.
By now it was getting cold and we made it to the pub.
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