Today was a meet up with SDOS for the first time in a long while and it was nice to catch up with some 'old faces', namely SM, CH and TH plus a few people I know by name and several new people.
The weather wasn't quite as hoped for with a little unexpected drizzle and the tide was too high for optimum birding but a total of about 47-48 species were seen with a male Marsh Harrier the best, very obliging Stonechat, a nice murmuration of Dunlin and Grey Plover and a solitary Bar-tailed Godwit, my first for a while.
One or two Rock Pipits included a Norwegian ringed bird which none of us realised was ringed until after the photo was downloaded!!
Details as follows:-
Green X9Z
Bird was ringed in 2020 as an adult, so at least 2 years old, at Maletangen, in Norway, about 1434km or 900miles as the pipit flies from Farlington Marshes. (See map).
Since 2020 the bird has been recorded most winters at Farlington, on dates between mid-October and early January and had already been reported to the Norway team in 1st and 5th November.
The reed bed looks terrible after the saltwater incursion so not really any chance of Bearded Tits.
After leaving the group to enjoy lunch at the info centre a Raven flew over whilst packing up the car.
And needless to say the weather improved greatly as the walk came to an end!
