Another trip outside my comfort area, to the northern end of Sheerness Beach and as close to Garrison Point as possible (without breaking the rules of Peel Ports).
No unexpected movements, but 29 Sanderling out of the Medway was nice. Before the tide turned, the flightlines were much as expected:
Today's musings were pretty much about where the deep water channel ends and how far offshore routine daily feeding movements over the Sheerness mud of Jacobs Bank and Swing Bank. The extensive mudflats are off-putting enough for most birders, but the waters beyond, to a point just under two kilometres off of Bartons Point, are a right mix of depths of between one and five metres, all good feeding for some offshore visitors.
Take Cormorant. Middle of the day, moving at a rate of about 20 per hour, but hard to suss if just birds going out around Cheney Spit. Only real way to get to grips with them is to count out early morning.
In the excellent i-boating's screengrab you can just, north-east corner, make out the deeper of water of the Great Nore, a natural bay about three kilometres offshore (the Thames deep water channel lays a further km north). Still marked as a useable anchorage for large ships, this is a lure to seaduck and the like, which often then turn north-west to rejoin the Thames west. Today, a few dozen Common Scoter where whizzing around that area, but none cut in to the Medway. Great Black-backed Gulls cut over the Nore as well, but things like Gannet stayed out on the Thames. All this is never going to sell the seawatching potential of Sheerness, but if you like solitude then today I had the Red Zone all to myself for four hours; not even a dogwalker showed up on the shingle (everyone sticks to the promenade which finishes 150 metres or so short of the signs. That'll do for me.
Take Cormorant. Middle of the day, moving at a rate of about 20 per hour, but hard to suss if just birds going out around Cheney Spit. Only real way to get to grips with them is to count out early morning.
In the excellent i-boating's screengrab you can just, north-east corner, make out the deeper of water of the Great Nore, a natural bay about three kilometres offshore (the Thames deep water channel lays a further km north). Still marked as a useable anchorage for large ships, this is a lure to seaduck and the like, which often then turn north-west to rejoin the Thames west. Today, a few dozen Common Scoter where whizzing around that area, but none cut in to the Medway. Great Black-backed Gulls cut over the Nore as well, but things like Gannet stayed out on the Thames. All this is never going to sell the seawatching potential of Sheerness, but if you like solitude then today I had the Red Zone all to myself for four hours; not even a dogwalker showed up on the shingle (everyone sticks to the promenade which finishes 150 metres or so short of the signs. That'll do for me.
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