A warm but windy WeBS

Today was a WeBS day - warm and sunny for the most part, but with a stiff SSW wind. The roosts at the west end of the reserve held:

1655 Oystercatchers
167 Redshank
2 Curlew
3 Knot
191 Grey Plover
302 Sanderling
357 Bar-tailed Godwit
13 Turnstone
47 Ringed Plover
45 Dunlin
1 Cormorant
1 Shag
710 Herring Gulls
2 Great Black-backed Gulls.

Also on the beach were 2 Shelduck, 2 Mallard, 8 Teal and 75-80 Snow Buntings.
Close inshore were a Red-necked Grebe, 4 Great Crested Grebes, 4 Red-breasted Mergansers, 3 Long-tailed Ducks, 1 Eider, 60 Common Scoter, 2 Red-throated Divers with another west, together with a drake Goldeneye. Elsewhere during WeBS were 2 Little Egrets, 1 Greenshank, 2 Snipe, a Jack Snipe, 40 Teal, 4 Wigeon, 10 Shovelers, 2 Black-headed Gulls, and 81 Brent Geese. All the Rock Pipits seem to have moved on.

The non-avian highlight of the morning was a Peacock Butterfly on the wing on the south, sunny but windy side of the pines. No owls for me today, but several Marsh Harriers quartered the grazing marshes, though no display today.

Others had yet another Bonxie today, which flew west close inshore.