Dawn was greeted by light rain and a stiff breeze and though the rain didn't persist, the wind grew stronger during the day, making birding increasingly futile. An early sea watch produced 6 Great Crested Grebes, 3 Red-breasted Mergansers and an Eider on the sea, 214 Brent Geese on the shore, 12 Snow Buntings on the beach and the usual wintering, huge female Merlin east, whilst a Peregrine hunted the grazing marshes. Later on a second Merlin - this time a male, was relentless in pursuit of a Skylark over Gore Point, but the Skylark managed to escape and the Merlin flew off over the dunes, hungry. A wander round the scrub produced an old Sea Buckthorn Bracket or two, whilst a wander along the shore produced a long list of molluscs (2 examples below) and masses of Hornwrack. The west-end dunes hold a nice colony of Coltsfoot and these are now starting to flower - seemingly shooing no ill-effects of their inundation during the December 2013 tidal surge. A recount of Heralds in the bunker revealed 12 individuals. Robert and I checked the grazing marsh dykes later for Water Voles - lots of signs in the form of their characteristic droppings, but no sign of the beasts themselves.
Mystery Lichen, Holme NWT, 2nd March 2014
Coltsfoot, Holme NWT, 2nd March 2014 - a large stand re-appearing on dunes inundated by the December storm surge
Sea Buckthorn Bracket, Holme NWT, 2nd March 2014
Hornwrack, Holme NWT, 2nd March 2014
Black Scallop, Holme NWT, 2nd March 2014
White Piddock, Holme NWT, 2nd March 2014
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