October 11th 2018

GORING GAP : Very breezy on patch made birding fairly difficult but a full circuit was made with a few birds around as summer was doing its best to cling on, the fields held most of the birds seen with a c20 Skylarks around, by far my largest count here this autumn, and numerous Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails were grounded. A flock of 14 Linnets lingered whilst another 6 flew east, a single Rock Pipit flew towards the beach and a very late Yellow Wagtail flew from the rough field area and towards the beach, a single female Reed Bunting also dropped into the rough field again highlighting the potential of this habitat for birds dropping in. Swallows were still trickling through in small numbers (totalling 17east) with a single House Martin tagging along. The area surrounding the football fields and the plantation found c5 Chiffchaffs and a single male Blackcap whilst a noticeable increase in Goldcrest numbers was evident, a Treecreeper was heard in the middle plantation, whilst 8 Siskins were in the north east corner, 2 continental Blackbird were also also presumably fresh in. A quick look on the beach revealed 5 Little Egret, 8 Sanderling, c20 Ringed Plover, c30 Turnstone and 6 Oystercatchers, gulls were represented with 4 Common Gull, 4 Mediterranean Gulls and 15 Greater-black backed Gulls between the beach and the fields. Still some butterflies on the wing with a single Clouded Yellow in the north fields and Red Admiral and Speckled Wood around in small numbers, the only raptor recorded was a single Sparrowhawk NB/GDM