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Leader and Report- Sue Gale The RSPB advertises the best days to see the waders at Snettisham and this Saturday was the first in 2025. Needless to say, there were a lot of people attending! We had arranged to meet in the car park at 2.00pm to beat the rush but actually were lucky to find a space before 2.00. The car park was closed shortly after that, and the beach car park alternative was also closed by 3.30! Several of our members had arranged to arrive later or to park elsewhere and in some cases we never did catch up with them. Abandoning the idea of exploring the bushes round the car park and on the path to the beach we arrived at the shoreline to find the sea looking a very long way away and the wind to be blowing strongly and coldly. By the time we reached the shore we had seen Tufted Ducks, Coots and Mallards on the lagoons and the likes of Buzzard, Red Kite, Greylag and Egyptian Goose and common passerines from the path. Some of us managed to put up telescopes and hold them steady enough to look for waders on the mud flats, reporting Redshanks and Dunlin among others. We made the decision to cross the main lagoon by the causeway at the halfway point and walk along the more sheltered side to the far hide. At this point another two members split off to go to the nearer hide on the shore side, where they met up with some of the missing. From the causeway we were able to view the lagoon in relatively sheltered conditions. The islands tended to each contain a single species, so one had Avocets and another Cormorants, although among the Black-headed Gulls were a few Mediterranean Gulls, helpfully pointed out to all. Across the lagoon were groups of Teal and Redshank. The far hide was surprisingly empty and we were able to take a rest from the wind in seated comfort. There were not large numbers of waders present at this point, but we were able to see small numbers of Turnstones, Oystercatchers, Shelduck, Ringed Plover and quite a lot more Med Gulls.
At around 4.30 we made our way to the shoreline and found a gap among the crowds. The sea still seemed far off but after a while it ‘approached’ and then it was amazing how rapidly the tide came in. Quite soon small groups of Knot and Oystercatchers were lifting and swirling to move along to the available mud, and the numbers increased and included groups of Bar-tailed Godwits and Dunlin. Although the numbers are not as great as earlier in the year, they were still wonderful to watch, and eventually groups of Knot began peeling off and flying over to the lagoon. Shortly before high tide many of us moved into the nearest hide. There to our right was the expected ‘beach’ of Knot and Oystercatchers, the Knot looking just like a grey pebble beach. Amazingly more and more groups of hundreds of Knot kept flying in, circling around and somehow managing to settle in on the same patch of shore. We were told that the latest count of Knot was over 24,000 and I’m sure most of those were packed into this small area. We all agreed that spectacular was the right word. We made it back to the car park in time to admire the lovely sunset sky. Bird List Blackbird Avocet Rook Teal Jackdaw Mediterranean Gull Black-headed Gull Carrion Crow Herring Gull Turnstone Coot Wigeon Chiffchaff Shoveler Goldfinch Meadow Pipit Buzzard Brent Goose Greylag Goose Black-tailed Godwit Starling Grey Plover Curlew Tufted Duck Marsh Harrier Blue Tit Wren Dunlin Egyptian Goose Canada Goose Greenfinch Dunnock Great Black-backed Gull Cormorant Pheasant Linnet Moorhen Little Egret Oystercatcher Shelduck Mute Swan Redshank Mallard Golden Plover Ringed Plover Magpie Woodpigeon Red Kite Knot 49 species
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May 2025
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