We woke up to an overcast morning with moderate winds blowing from the South-west. This made the morning's ringing effort and birding in general pretty tough. As a result just a handful of Willow and Sedge Warbler were recorded with the strange ringing tick of the day going to a juvenile Carrion Crow. Elsewhere there were a smattering of Wheatear, a Reed Warbler and a putative Cirl Bunting late in the afternoon.
The sea didn't fair much better with just 3 Balearic Shearwaters, 30 Mediterranean Gulls, 23 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and an Arctic Skua.
This morning's excitement began with a phone call from Pete and Debbie Saunders. They had in their Southwell garden a mega for Portland, a female Mandarin Duck ! The bird had visited briefly the night before and had re-appeared, sleeping by the side of their pond. Quickly, all of the local birders were informed and it became a race against time as builders were due at anytime to carry out work in the back garden, a few feet from the pond !
Mandarin Duck Pete Saunders
