Spring at last...

Four Sandwich Tern on the Salty were the first recorded migrants on patch this year, although Wheatear and Sand Martin must have been on the racecourse and over Decoy or Rackerhayes respectively.

An hour's dipping

A look from Salcombe Dip layby this evening showed four Black-tailed Godwit on the estuary with 40+ Common Gull on the mudflats, but none of the hoped for Ring-billed. Mid March in the mid/late 1990's used to see a good spring passage of this species with up to seven birds on a couple of dates.

BHG from Germany

A Black-headed Gull that I saw last year on the 20th July at Passage House was ringed at Zwillbrocker Venn - a nature reserve in north west Germany. It was ringed as a chick in 2006 and has been seen at the same site during the breeding period pretty much every year since. My sighting is it's first away from the breeding grounds.

Black-headed Gull - black A3S3