Trip reports

A Blustery Morning at Seal Sands

Sunday, 16 September 2007

Starting at the saline lagoon, we were pleased to see a couple of little egrets feeding and a lone curlew.

Once exposed on the road bridge overlooking the creek the breeze became a strong wind, necessitating a low profile for telescopes. A good number of seals were hauled out on the mud, along with small numbers of lapwing, redshank, curlew and oystercatcher, as well as dunlin and turnstone - the latter sensibly sheltering under a low overhang.

Walking along the path to Seal Sands we saw teal and more waders, but the buffeting wind made viewing very difficult, so we were pleased to get into the shelter of the hide.

On an ebbing tide there were plenty of waders, including godwit, shelduck, cormorants, gulls and more seals, albeit mostly in the distance. A couple of closer small waders provided confusion, discussion and amusement, along the lines of "Are they dunlin or (k)not?"

A walk along the Long Drag to the next hide produced very little birdlife, so we returned to the cars - buffeted but unbowed -noting that there were now four little egrets around the pool and still plenty of swallows to be seen.