12th January 2022

 Weather:  SW force 2    sunny

A beautiful calm and sunny morning with the Brent all within sight of the island, enabling a complete count to establish a record high number for the obs. There were 483 pale-bellied and 4 dark-bellied birds.

 It is normal for the Brents to peak at this time in the winter, and colour ringed birds are always looked for so their movements can be recorded.

The low tide made waders hard to find, the best numbers being 220 Curlew, 27 Ringed Plover, 60 Turnstone, 50 Redshank, 4 Grey Plover and 2 Purple sandpipers. A good number of Herring Gulls were out to the west of the island and over 200 Black-headed Gulls were noted over the sea. A couple of dozen Common Scoter, 2 Shelduck and 2 Little Egrets were present, and a Peregrine showed towards Middle. Three of the 4 Rock Pipits were on Middle, there were 6 Robins and 3 each of Blackbird and Song Thrush.

 The marine lake looked splendid in the late afternoon.

 Photos CJW, SRW