Whooper Swan Twitch

It was a work day in London today. I was up at 4am to leave by 5am and had 11 clients to meet and also had a meeting with the accountant and a personal visit to my mum too - so it was a busy schedule. As I left the house there were Redwings going over and there was a light south westerlies with overcast skies. By 7am as I arrived at my mums Paul Bowley reported Brents moving off Selsey Bill and it was basically at that point I realised that I had probably left the Peninsula on the first big migration wave of the Spring. Sure enough the news kept coming in through the morning with over 1500 Brents moving East off the Bill (there were 5500 off Dungeness), a few Wheatears at various sites and an incredible flock of 6 Whooper Swans were found by Les in White's Creek. Birdguides also reported a Spoonbill and there were three White-fronted Geese with the Whoopers and more birds moving off the Bill. All the news from today HERE.

I did my best to get round all my appointments as swiftly as possible and then headed back south to try and catch up with some of today's action. I managed to get to Church Norton by about 5pm with an hour or so of light left. The Whoopers were still present but distant on North Wall viewable from the Benches and the Brent Goose passage had resumed and Andrew and I had about 500 moving east (also distantly). There were also 3 Greenshanks and 3 Bar-tailed Godwits out on the mud. So managed to witness some of the magical vis-mig today and also scored the big ones so a little bit of a recovery. 

Whooper Swans off North Wall (for decent photos see HERE)

Brents on the move in the evening

Greenshanks