Firstly let me invite anyone who’s interested to come down to Hodbarrow and help with our floating tern island and fence work party. We have another one going on this Thursday meeting at 10.00 am at the wildlife watching hide on the sea wall. Same things as before apply please bring sturdy shoes, lunch and outdoor clothing. We need people to help move timber and construct the wooden platforms.
Mergansers are definitely building up in number! I was down on a rising tide and they kept dropping into the lagoon over the sea wall to join those already there. I counted 70+ throughout the lagoon.
Other birds around were scaup on the main lagoon however this hasn’t been seen since the 27th of Sept, as well as snipe regularly on the island and several groups moving over head particularly in bad weather. A merlin made a brief appearance whilst I was sitting in the hide last Thursday. It flew right past the front of the hide at quite a lick. As well as those birds there are the usual suspects about such as redshank, teal, grey heron, mute swan, great crested grebe amongst others.