The part of the week the weather continued to dominate the news as waves continued to crash up on to the spits. All this churning also brought some unexpected bounty in the form of thousands of sea urchins and starfish being washed up on the shore. This added bonus saw gulls of all shapes flock to the spits with hundreds cashing in on the unexpected food. Apart from the expected Herring and Black Headed Gulls this new bounty also attracted 200 Mediterranean Gulls, 100 Common Gull, the odd Yellow-legged Gull and occasional Kittiwake. Whilst during the storms a Little Gull was reported offshore. On Thursday a large roost of 56 Herring Gulls was on Ferry Pool and in this flock there was a possible Caspian Gull, a gull normally found in Eastern Europe.
Towards the end of the week the weather settled but many of the seabirds had moved on, probably out to sea to escape the worst of the storms but as the sea settled the 2 Long-Tailed Ducks, 3 Velvet Scoter and up to 8 Eider were still present.
The harbour remained busy with waders and waterfowl as they continued to feed on the mudflats occasionally being disturbed by fly pasts of Peregrine, Merlin or Marsh Harrier. Out in the fields the small birds were still making good use of all the seed heads of the winter plants with 30 Goldfinch, 6 Yellowhammer, 25 Reed Bunting, 40 Linnet and 20 Chaffinch reported around the site. In the churchyard at Church Norton 2 Firecrests were happy sheltering in the low bushes while down the west side 2 Stonechats were making there presence known.
The Warden, RSPB Crook of Baldoon