Got into work atfer ringing and checked my pager bfore going to clean the bogs. Glad I did as it said 5 black winged stilts (171) on the fresh marsh. Leeged it down the path to see the birds feeding with the knot. After a few mins they took off and headed east onto the saltmarsh before most people had arrived. Thankfully they did come back and once they had settled down showed pretty well for the rest of the day. Did manage to get a crappy photo of two of the birds this evening.
As I put out the work moth trap I decided to sit outside the VC and show the visitors what I had caught. With 4 species of hawkmoth it was very popular and loads of people stopped to look. Unfortunatly at about 12:45 Tony radioed to say there was gull-billed tern on the fresh marsh but was heading east quickly. No time to get there which was frustrating as it would have been a British tick for me. Although nice, this eyed hawkmoth was little consolation!
Ringing was good although nothing of real note. Unusually new birds ended up higher with over 50 caught including 2 swallows.
Cheers for staying with the moth trap, I was one of the people that had a good look before and after seeing the stilts. A shame you didn't get on the Gull-billed Tern though.
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