Not much we could have done about the weather today; may be great for gulls and all that but not exactly ideal for planting bare root saplings.  Not much choice really but with a stalwart group of hardy volunteers, myself and the Wardening Team, we managed to get about 250 safely into the ground. It was blooming cold with a biting wind and temperatures at about freezing all day but we were pleased with the results. They…

With three Little Gulls and a summer pluamged Mediterranean Gull yesterday afternoon we made it to eleven species this week on the reserve and today we managed all of those in just one day!  Fantastic!  And just in case you were wondering they were...

1. Black-headed Gull
2. Little Gull (four more today!)
3. Mediterranean Gull (another different adult)
4. Common Gull
5. Kittiwake (three more today!)
6. Herring Gull
7. Yellow-legged…

Truly cold today and five layers were not enough to keep the wind out. Blue skies were a bonus though and good light afforded excellent views of almost everything we saw which included a new second year Iceland Gull on the Target Pools and a fine adult Yellow-legged Gull along side it. The Peregrines were busy spooking everything and a male Ruff almost landed on the Purfleet Scrape amongst the thronging Wigeon.

Managed to get some shots of one of the female Marsh Harriers that has been seen in recent days. Flew right over our heads in the centre!! This one kept going south across the Thames.