A group from Birdwatchers booked again for what has become an annual event, missing their Sunday lunch and making do with a pasty or a packed lunch.

In February you never expect it to be a glorious day, so no surprises there and we didn’t get stuck on a sandbank like we did a 2 or 3 years ago. Because of the recent heavy rains there was much water in the estuary covering some of the sandbanks keeping some of the birds a distance away from the boat making them harder to see. But the Red-breasted Mergansers we had a very close look at, and the first for a member in our group, and the 100-150 maybe more Avocets will be memorable, also the flock of Golden Plover doing a murmeration (only to be called that if they were Starlings, so our guide told us).

And our guide also pointed out a feature to identify the Shag from the Cormorant. The Shag gets its name from its crest which is an old Norse name which means ‘tufted’. This only applies in the breeding season February to July when the males show off their breeding plumage. Females have a smaller one...

...but we did see the sun on the later part of our trip.
Janet Fernley

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BIRD LIST

• Avocet
• Bar-tailed Godwit
• Black-headed Gull
• Black-tailed Godwit
• Brent Goose
• Buzzard
• Canada Goose
• Carrion Crow
• Cormorant
• Curlew
• Dunlin
• Golden Plover
• Great Black-backed Gull
• Grey Heron
• Herring Gull
• Kestrel
• Knot
• Linnet
• Little Egret
• Oystercatcher
• Red-breasted Merganser
• Redshank
• Sanderling
• Shag
• Shelduck
• Starling