Trip reports

Sunday Morning at South Gare

Sunday, 14 September 2008

16 members turned up and together we headed off towards the bomb crater, where we were rewarded with a dunnock and a red-throated diver out in the river within easy viewing (the diver, that is; not the dunnock) . Making our way back up river, we saw cormorant and eider. There followed excellent sightings of spotted flycatcher and redstart. Next came curlew, redshank, oystercatcher and bar-tailed godwit in the estuary. On cabin rocks there were linnet and a mysterious red-fronted creature which perched, unmoving, in the shrubbery. I say 'unmoving' because it was not even disturbed by a passing dog owner with faithful hound. Clearly this was a red-fronted creature of some kind other than the feathered variety. False alarm. We next headed off in search of a sycamore tree where lesser whitethroat had been seen. But what does a sycamore tree look like? That was our problem! Undeterred, we scoured the foliage and came up with splendid views of whinchat, blackcap, robin, pied and spotted flycatchers.
By this time, the tide was on its way in and we spotted a raft of scoter in characteristic grouping. After being sidetracked into looking for a snipe back by the bomb crater, (and finding female blackcap instead) we had sandwich tern overhead as we crossed to look out over the rocks and sandy bay. Here we had pied wagtail and a kestrel (one of a number seen today) sitting on the beach. We finished the morning with intense debate about a wagtail on the strand line. Grey or Yellow? We checked our field guides, 'scoped and 'binned' the birds for detail and in the end talked to other birders nearby. Definite Yellows! I knew they were! A splendid end to a splendid morning.