Lepe - 14th October

A sunny and warm afternoon. Highlights were Mediterranean Gull, Red-legged Partridge and Greenshank.

From the car park at Lepe you look right onto the beach and there are plenty of birds here at low tide in winter. Today was no exception. About 150 Brent Geese were loafing around on the water and there were some Cormorants on a far off post. Waders on the beach consisted of many Turnstone, a few Redshank and one or two Ringed Plover. We had a good look at where the river Dark Water comes to the sea. Upstream from here you can see some flooded areas and scrub. Here there were a few Little Egrets, a Greenshank, some Redshank, a few Curlew and one or two Black-headed Gull. A Lesser Black-backed Gull was sitting beside the river and 3 Little Grebe were a little further upstream. Overhead many Swallows were feeding with one or two House Martin and a Mediterranean Gull flew over. At the back of the area were a flock of 10 or so Red-legged Partridge and a few Pheasant and we also found a Grey Plover and a Teal on the fields. One or two Jays flew over the area and a Stonechat put in an appearance. Lyz saw a Wren! There were also a few Meadow Pipits around.
We walked along the beach westwards seeing a few flowers along the way. Rock Samphire and a few Hottentot Fig were in flower on the rocky sea wall and further along on the more sandy beaches there was some Sea Spurge, Sea Rocket and Sticky Groundsel in flower. We also saw a Speckled Wood butterfly flying along the beach where there were a few trees. After a while we came to more mudflats and there were a lot of waders roosting here. Many Grey Plover and Turnstones, some Dunlin, Curlew and Brent Geese. Further over there were lots of (several hundred) Canada Geese. We made our way up to the road and looked back at the mudflats from here and found a few Wigeon to add to the list. Some Teal and Redshank were nearby. We walked back along the road. Back at Dark Water there were many Black-headed Gulls roosting now and there was one Common Gull with them.
Simon Curson.