Witham mouth. Chilly, Easterly breeze.
Arriving while the tide was in, there was plenty of wildfowl on the move. Several skeins of up to 200 pinkfeet headed over towards Norfolk. A superb flock of 55 whoopers flew over me, heading the same way- marvellous. Later on another group of 13.
The seawatching was rubbish to start with, just a couple of eiders, a couple of great-crested grebes and a few seals popping up every now and then. Things improved around mid-morning when the tide started to fall and the wind got up a bit. The next hour or two wasn’t bad and I finished with a half decent list. Most birds North;
Juv. gannets 11
Arctic skua
Great skua
Common scoter 9
Red-throated diver (south)
Auk sp.
Eider 5
Drake scaup, on the water, directly out from Tabb’s head
Teal 20
Brents, wigeons and waders flying about a lot.
After lunchtime it all went quiet again.
Merlin and marsh harrier showed well on the saltmash.
In the bushes were a chiffchaff and a couple of goldcrests. A male stonechat was near the car park.
