1x Merlin, 1x Marsh Harrier, 1x Hen Harrier, 1x Spotted Redshank.
An excellent day on the pools, the weather was great and increasing numbers of birds were present since my previous visit. Walking from the car park to the pinnacle and on to Black Barn Pools produced a good number of species. A special moment for me was seeing a pair of mute swan with three young that had grown to quite a size since spring. Lapwing over the site seemed to provide a large contribution to total bird numbers which included five species of gull. A pair of bar-tailed godwit were seen on Black Barn Pools as were ringed plover. A flock of roughly 400 dunlin circling Flamingo Pool provided an excellent spectacle late afternoon.
Wigeon, pochard, mallard and tufted duck were all around the site. The number of little grebe on Crystal Lake was astounding. The black-necked grebe was still available to view from the edge of the car park on Crystal Lake.
It was good to see the car park so full with a large number of visitors enjoying the reserve . My thanks to Mark and Stuart for joining me on my wardening duties and a big hello to the Essex bird crowd that journeyed over to see Cliffe Pools; I hope you enjoyed it.