Had a long awaited visit to the point today. The purpose of today was to carry out the first visit to one of 5 winter wader roost / feeding locations I watch during the winter period in order to try and find colour / flag ringed waders of which Red Knot is the main survey species.
As soon as I arrived on site I was pleased to see a nice "Smokey" Knock flock which contained around 1200+ birds. The Knot have only just arrived in to this side of the Thames estuary during this past week. I did 2 recce's in the past 2 weeks of which both recce's drew a blank. The Knot arrived in this side of the Thames pretty much the same time last year and I wonderred why they arrive so late in the Thames when they hit the Wash in big numbers in early August. I have recently learnt that the Knot arrive at big esturies such as the Wash & the Wadden sea where they remain to complete their post breeding moult before moving on to other estuaries throughout various parts of the UK.
Red Knot were the predominant species of wader present today which peaked at around 2200+ with another 1000+ visible over the channel in the area of Leigh Sands. Other species of Wader present included Grey Plover 400+, Dunlin 1000+, Oystercatcher 1500+, Turnstone 30+, Curlew 60+, Ringed Plover 20+, Sanderling 14 and a single Bar Tailed Godwit. Non Waders came in the fom of 1 Black Throated Diver, 1 Bonxie, 1 1st Winter Med Gull, 14 Teal, 60+ Brent Goose.
Why is that I managed to get this reasonable shot of a Red Knot and yet the individuals wearing colour / flag rings are always so difficult to get a decent shot of ?
Today I was pleased to locate 6 colour / flag ringed birds and the details are as follows:Knot 1) Red colour ring over Green flag ring left leg & Yellow colour ring right leg (photo above)
Knot 2) Yellow colour ring over Yellow colour ring right leg & Green colour ring over green flag ring left leg.
Knot 3) Green colour ring over red colour ring over green flag ring left leg & Yellow colour ring right leg.
Knot 4) Blue color ring over red flag ring over white colour ring right leg & Yellow colour ring left leg.
Knot 5) Red colour ring over white colour ring over reen flag ring left leg & White colour ring right leg.
Knot 6) Yellow Flag ring with black inscribed letters CKX left leg & Red colour ring right leg ( photo below)
The bird above is one of the regualar birds that have been trapped and ringed in Norway as per previous sightings using the same system of Yellow flag ring with a 3 letter coded system as per J.W
The bird above is one of the regualar birds that have been trapped and ringed in Norway as per previous sightings using the same system of Yellow flag ring with a 3 letter coded system as per J.W
View of Canvey flats after the tide has retreated, this is a good feeding area for Red knot and other waders.
Another view Canvey flats looking out over the mudflats, the shipping channel and Kent in the background. The shipping channel is currently being dredged to enable much bigger cargo freights to access the Thames Estuary to dock at the new "super docks" to be built at Corringham. These new docks which are to built will be one of the biggest ports in Europe and so the freight using the Thames will increase in both size and volume and could possibly have a negative impact on the feeding areas of the Thames. "Only time will tell I guess"