10th March 2023

 Weather:  NNE force 4,  later N2  Cold with snow early followed by sunshine.

 The welsh mountains showed plenty of snow had fallen in the night.

 and for  a change Hilbre also experienced a covering of several inches in places during the early hours of the morning (Little Eye below).

The main island seemed more lightly covered as the grassy areas had been more wind blown.

Mid-morning the sun shone and quickly turned the island from looking like the Arctic to spring.

As the tide turned lots of waders were around including 8,000 Knot, 2,000 Dunlin, 200 Sanderling and 6 Purple Sandpipers. Especially showing well in the perfect light for our camerman were Turnstone (120 today) and Grey Plover (90).

The 7 regular Eider are still here, 120 Scoter were logged, also 250 Brent but a nice surprise was a drake Scaup on the sea. The lack of migrants in the northerly wind was not a surprise however. Interesting was the finding of frogspawn scattered on the grass on the west side away from the pond.

Photos CJW