It was a beautiful day today, warm and sunny with occasional clouds and becoming better as the afternoon wore on; temperatures of 14C. When we think of autumn colours we tend to think of trees but the saltmarsh plants were ablaze with golds and reds in the afternoon sun. I parked at Buck Bec intially and walked out to the tide line but things were quiet here, although I did find a very accommodating redshan which is unusual as they usually fly off noisily at the first sign of humans: the sentinel of the marsh. I could see through the binoculars that there was more activity up by Tentney Marshes so I moved location and was soon parked up by the Humber Mouth Yacht Club. Walking out onto the beach I could see loads of bird activitiy by the creek where Tetney Haven/
Louth Canal flows out to see. I was amazed to see that the creek had moved its channel yet again; it seems to do it over night. The tide was well out and it looked as though it would be possible to walk out to the Haile Sand Fort, although the creek would be in the way. Through the long lens the fort and Spurn lighthouse looked as though they were right next to each other without the 4 or 5 miles of estuary in between. on the flat, muddy beach there were several small mixed flocks of dunlin and ringed plover, the dunlin very confiding. By the creek were several gull species, cormorants, curlew, redshank, oystercatchers and brent geese. All very wary and I didn't get close enough to disturb them from their feeding as that time is crucial to them to built up the energy needed to survive.
Back in the dunes I checked the sea buckthorn as always and was delighted to find a female and two male stonechats. The lagoons on the marsh held a lot of gulls and a few little egrets.
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