This morning there was a really smart looking summer plumage dunlin on the end of the spit. It was a very bright bird with a grey head and nape contrasting with the rufous mantle, leading me to believe that it might be a male of the northern race alpina which would probably mean that it's a late spring migrant heading north. On the other hand it could be a failed breeder of the more usual UK race schinzii heading south which would make it the first passage wader of the autumn at the flash. Not sure what happened to summer....
Thanks to a tip off from a friend I was ready and waiting for this great white egret to fly over the ruck.
There are plenty of juvenile black-headed gulls around the spit at the moment, which is good to see given the amount of corpses lying around which died from bird flu.
Don't be fooled by these photos, the bird was much brighter than it appears here. As usual when I digiscope, the photo is a bit washed out.
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