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Eden Estuary News (1 Viewer)

A pretty quiet weekend with feeble tides/heat haze a problem. However we saw osprey on both days, which can't be bad. Suddenly there are willow warblers everywhere, several juvs around each day this week. Another species which has become more obvious recently is stock dove. They were mysteriously absent until the last couple of weeks or so. Highlight of the week so far has been another appearance by the redstart, now looking smarter and clearly an adult female. According to Les this is the first record for the LNR.
We have a new mammal for the garden, though we have yet to clap eyes on it. There are several small piles of hedgehog crap dotted round the garden.

Rob
 
Strong winds and high tides were the theme over the weekend. We saw the first returning Canada geese on Wednesday and a single bird has been around since. Still not much variety on the wader front, though 11 greenshanks on Saturday was the highest count so far this year. Good conditions for watching the estuary mouth early evening on Saturday netted a record count of at least 50 gannets, 2 kittiwakes, 2 fulmars and a very nice pale phase arctic skua (107 for the year).
Plenty of terns on the flooded saltmarsh this morning, mainly common and sandwich. I'm still chuffed with finding a roseate at Ruddons Point yesterday ...

Rob
 
At last something worth reporting!
Friday evening produced a flurry of waders more associated with the outer estuary: 54 grey plovers (most in stunning plumage), 57 knot, 6 bar-tailed godwits. However the pick of the bunch was a moulting adult curlew sandpiper (108 for the year.
Saturday was an excellent day with 56 spp. seen, including all 6 raptors on the garden list. A female merlin was around at lunchtime and an osprey spent much of the afternoon on a post in the outer estuary. Other notable records were 2 unseasonal goldeneye, 20 or so common scoter (109), a record count of 51 goosander, 8 greenshanks and 4 stock doves. 2 skuas (1 pale, 1 dark) were left unidentified.
Yesterday produced 5 pintail and rather belatedly the first snipe of the year. (110).
Here's a non-avian oddity:
On Wednesday evening at about 7 o'clock we saw 2 teenage boys (13-14ish) walk across the saltmarsh from the riding stables, out on to the mud and then wade through the river to the other side! This was just downstream of the mouth of the Motray. The water was up to their chests! Clearly copycat river walkers. Most bizarre.

Rob
 
Have done a bit of watching from the Eden nature centre yesterday and today. 2 Curlew Sands yesterday, not much else. However, tide has been wrong the past two days but I will go again shortly, by which time the tide should be about right.
 
This morning had a distant green sandpiper from the nature centre: it appeared to land on the east side of cobble shore.

Also: 2 osprey, peregrine, kingfisher, 1 curlew sand, 2 whimbrel, 2 greenshank.
 
Hi Jonathan, had the green sand yesterday morning - new for the garden list.
An incredibly productive weekend all round, of which more a bit later.
A few titbits from last week:
Wednesday morning produced a turnstone (never common this far up the estuary) and a wheatear. Friday evening produced the 2 juvenile curlew sands also at least 19 greenshanks.
Saturday was sensational with a total of 65 spp seen (a new garden record), which I think merits a post all of its own!


Rob
 
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Saturday morning began in fine style with 2 juvenile curlew sands before breakfast - they were seen several times over the course of the day. An osprey flew through, made an abortive attempt to catch a fish and flew off downstream. Whilst processing the contents of the moth trap a grey wagtail flew over, the first of the year (111) - it or another went over again late afternoon. A stock dove also flew low overhead.
By this time it was becoming clear that I was racking up a good total. Scanning downstream towards the estuary mouth yielded 2 ospreys, 12 common scoter, fulmar, gannet and a dark phase arctic skua harrying terns. A party of small waders flew in and I was rather surprised when they turned out to be 3 ringed plovers and 5 sanderlings (the latter rather like hen's teeth this far up the Eden). A foray along the drive gave me a willow warbler and 2 spotted flycatchers. These were new for the year (112) and a species I thought we had missed.
Even when I nipped out of the house to the car at lunchtime a new bird appeared - 2 whimbrel flew over calling insistently taking the total to 60! There were few additional possibilities by this stage, but 8 arctic terns mid-afternoon were nice. The day concluded with a party of house martins around 7:30 - and 2 mosquito bites on the foot - ouch!

Sunday was nearly as good ...

Rob
 
Sunday started with a cracker - the aforementioned green sandpiper before breakfast. A new bird for the garden list (144 total and 113 for the year). A sparrowhawk during breakfast was another bird absent from Saturday's list. Conditions were less favourable for "seawatching" but 2 ospreys were on their usual posts in the outer estuary, at one point with a peregrine sat on a smaller post nearby. A small flock of scoters flew past, but the single skua was not specifically identifiable. At least 9 golden plovers appeared over what passed for high tide, another species not seen the previous day. Calidrids avoided the inner estuary for most of the day but I did manage to find a curlew sand. late morning. Late afternoon did produce 11 knot, in company with a record count of 118 grey plovers. Shortly before that came the last new species of the day - a super juvenile spotted redshank feeding on the opposite shore (114 for the year).
60 species in total for the day and an amazing 71 for the weekend.

I'm sure Jane will come past sooner or later ...

One final thought, where are all the ruffs?

Rob
 
Hi Rob.

I was at the Eden Cetre the other day and watched a stoat at thew low water line stalking waders. This stoat soon gave up but soon caught the attention of a Juvenile Buzzard and the hunter became the hunted. The stoat was clearly alarmed by the presence of the raptor and hid under stones as it made its way along the erosion control. The buzzard followed the bird moving from fencepost to fencepost but had no luck and the buzzard gave up eventually.

I'll hopefully be over at the weekend to get Curlew Sand on my Fife yearlist.
 
Well the ruffs are here at last, with 2 on Friday and Saturday and 3 yesterday (115 for the year). Otherwise not so good. I had one curlew sand on Saturday morning before the airshow started and golden plover numbers have jumped into 3 figures.
Don't get me started on planespotters. This year's trick was to break the gate at the top of the drive. We found it lying in the drive as we left to do the WeBS count at Ruddons on Saturday afternoon. They were trespassing all over the shop, our neighbours even saw some on the saltmarsh. Give me twitchers any day.
The very high tides are difficult for calidrids - the tide comes in so fast that there is little time to pick anything good up. They then go missing in the saltmarsh vegetation. There is still at least one osprey around and a few common terns have come upstream over the high tides.

Rob
 
A big influx of dabbling duck on Monday, including a record count of 187 teal and 7 pintail. Still 3 ruff around last night, but no sign of a curlew sandpiper since before the airshow on Saturday morning. I understand there won't be one next year due to runway resurfacing :t:

Rob
 
Fairly quiet on the wader front at the moment, although godwit numbers are slowly increasing. In stark contrast to the reports of large numbers of black-tailed godwits from around the UK our numbers have been unusually low this autumn (still not reached 3 figures). Saturday produced an unusually late spotted flycatcher and a real mega: a drake pochard - the first for over 3 years (116 for the year).
I'm away with work at the moment so unless Sue tells me about something good there won't be any updates for a few days.

Rob
 
Best birds seen by Sue in my absence were a pair of shoveler. I was at home on Friday, recovering from 4 days doing an experiment on a central facility, and it proved quite productive. I saw the 2 shoveler, along with 4 pintail and plenty of wigeon and teal. Scanning to the estuary mouth produced around 20 common scoters and a couple of arctic skuas. A good wader roost included 9 greenshanks, a ruff, 4 curlew sandpipers and a little stint (117 for the year).
Saturday had some awkward heat haze but produced 11 greenshanks and 2 little stints. A guillemot, rather surprisingly, was new for the year (118). Yesterday was a complete washout - almost continuous rain with a strong NE wind driving it against the windows!
This morning as the fog cleared a flock of 70-75 barnacle geese flew out, presumably having roosted - 119 for the year.

Rob
 
Was at the Eden hide yesterday. A flock of c300 Barnacles dropped in at around 0900 but then departed in the heavy persistent rain prior to high tide. Saw a Guillemot-probably the same bird as you fishing immediately in front of the hide -it looked a bit rakish -?malnourished.
 
Fairly quiet last week - I dipped the med gull found by Tom Moodie midweek. By the time I got home the number of blackheads in the roost made life a bit tricky! Several long-tailed tit sightings during the week and the odd ruff too. 180 barnacle geese as I cycled home on Friday was nice. The weekend was more lively with 63 spp seen on Sunday despite some glaring omissions (including blackbird!!). I also failed to see ruff and spotshank which Tom saw on Sunday morning.
Saturday's highlights included 4 scaup (1 drake), a ruff and a calidrid which we fumbled, though in our defence it was a long way away and flew further away. It may have been Baird's, though some features didn't seem to fit.
Excellent conditions for viewing the outer estuary (and beyond) on Sunday morning produced a couple of brent geese, a flock of 11 barnacles, a dozen razorbills (new for year) and 3 common scoters. Other highlights included a couple of red-throated divers, 4 sanderlings, 2 little stints, 1 knot, 1 turnstone, a pair of scaup, and culminating in 4 grey partridges (first for 2 years, taking us to 121 for the year).

Rob
 
We were away last weekend, missing some monster tides, though we did get home in time for Monday's prodigious effort! Ironically the huge tides are often not that good for finding things - calidrids get lost in the grass! Jane has now got ahead - no hope for us now!
There are plenty of red-throated divers around at present - I had a record count of 5 yesterday morning, 4 of which were well up stream. Saturday's highlight was a green sandpiper flying over calling, wonder if it is the same bird as last month. Around 1600 golden plovers was much the biggest count this year and a great spectacle, though they were jittery as ever.
Yesterday gave excellent calm conditions for scanning downstream and produced 2 slav grebes, a great crested grebe and 2 razorbills. A single little stint showed pretty well and 220 black-tailed godwits was the best of the autumn to date.
In the afternoon we toddled across to Angus and had excellent views of Radde's warbler at Auchmithie.

Rob
 
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