Page 23 - Out Birding Winter 2023

Grand Get Together 13, Skegness 6-8th October
Saturday's visit to Gibraltar Point reserve started for me the night before with the talk after dinner by Kevin Wilson the Coastal Officer on the importance of the reserve for migrating birds. The pictures, charts and information he gave really laid a framework for what we saw on the reserve the following day and raised my awareness of being in the middle of a migration.
Gibraltar Point is a long sandy spit stretching out into the Wash. It has sand and mud- flats at the sea’s edge with extensive dunes protecting saltmarsh behind and behind that some freshwater marsh and reed beds with extensive arable land mainly laid to vegetables. We split into four groups and ours started on the saltmarsh near the visitor centre, moving out to the dunes, overlooking the sea then back to the Observatory before the sea hide then back to the visitor centre.
Wigeon, Swallow, Little Egret, Blue Tit, Goldfinch, Meadow Pipit, Herring and Great Black-backed Gull then the first Sparrowhawk before we had set foot on the salt- marsh. The Goldfinch were to become a feature of the day as there were continual flocks moving south often up to 30-40+ and around 3-400 passed over in total. Skylark, Snipe, Stock Dove and Carrion Crow passed over as we approached the tress and scrub bordering the dunes. The scrub was alive with bird calls. We saw Goldcrest, Robin, Long-tailed Tit, Greenfinch and could hear Wren, Blackcap and Chiffchaff.
Out at sea were Redshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Sandwich Tern on the shore with Red-throated Diver and Guillemot on the sea. As we turned back towards the ringing station 3 Glossy Ibis made a leisurely circuit before dropping into a small pool.
At the ringing station we had chance to view close up Lesser Redpoll, Dunnock, Greenfinch and Chiffchaff with a detailed description of the age and condition and possible origin of the birds from the volunteers.
Lesser Redpoll: Mike P
Turning back to the saltmarsh we had lovely views of a Marsh
Harrier and Short-eared Owl quartering the edge of the marsh in the distance. There was time before lunch for a visit to the sea hide where Pied Wagtail, Starling, House Martin, Mallard, Magpie, Golden Plover, and a couple of skeins of Pink-footed Geese flew past. The view out to sea produced Brent Geese, Gannet, Shelduck lots of Grey Seals on the marsh and in the water and a few Roe Deer.
After lunch, where GBC made a significant proportion of the diners, we had our group photo with a backdrop of Stonechat and Reed Bunting on the fence behind.
Lunch and photos completed we made a circuit of the freshwater and reed beds and enroute encountered a lovely mixed flock of Long-tailed Tit with Goldcrest, Blue and Great Tit, Chiffchaff and Chaffinch amongst them. The freshwater hides produced Little Grebe, Moorhen, Gadwall, Shoveler, Avocet, Teal, Lapwing, Pintail and Tufted
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