Gary Howard's birds and wildlife

Jenny and I took the kids for an afternoon walk around Cliffe Pools. We walked from near the Radar and did a clockwise circuit of the pools taking close to 3 hours and finishing in the dark.

It was very overcast, dull and grey with the odd light shower but not too cold.

Highlights were a female Merlin, 2 Brent Geese, a Greenshank and at least 6 possibly 10 Green Sandpipers. The Green Sands were largely in the dykes between the site of the former coastguard cottages and the Black Barn pool. On the pools we saw 5 Goldeneye, a few Pintail and about 250 Teal.

We bumped into Gordon Allison searching for the shore lark but they seemed to have gone (or moved) and apparently had not been seen since Friday.

We had a Cettis Warbler in the ditch by Black Barn pool and a small flock of about 50 Fieldfare.

Passerines were generally in short supply and we saw no owls or harriers.