Seabirds at Camber Sands

As it was sunny this morning, I took a walk along to the channel the Rother flows along, and then back along the beach to Camber. As the tide was low, there were plenty of seabirds flying along the line of the river but actually below where I was on the sea defences:
allowing me to get some good pictures:
That's a Herring Gull - plenty of them around, usual, here's some more pics:
and it's bigger cousin, the Great Black-backed Gull:
The smaller Black-headed Gull was around too:
and inquisitive as to what I was doing:
The other bird I saw a lot of was the Oyster Catcher:
I know the next one looks the same as the one above, but I like it as it has the bird, its shadow and its reflection all in one photo:
I also saw one Cormorant:
and one Mallard, which was maybe a bit lost?
The sea defences aren't actually in great shape:
but I guess the local council is going to be to broke to fix them any time soon. Hope we don't get a storm surge this winter!

And to finish, a view along Camber Sands, from the Rother end of the beach:
Mike

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Defensive gulls

Apparently I'm not allowed to wear white clothing on our top balcony for a while. Here's what happens if I do, especially if I put my arms up in the air...

It's a black-backed gull, and it has some chicks on the roof opposite, so gets defensive if it thinks we're a threat. Here's a video of some herring gull chicks on the next roof along:

Mike

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Rhododendron killing

On Sunday I went to the wood to check on our trail camera (still nothing interesting...), but also dealt with this while I was there:After half an hour's work with loppers, an axe and a spade, I was left with this:
It's important to remove rhododendron wherever you find it in a wood, as it's an invasive non-native species, and can take over if left to itself. I know I didn't get all the roots out for this one (which is in the wayleave), but will check back over the coming months for any shoots indicating the presence of roots to be removed.

In the evening we went down to the beach with our friends John and Helen, after the crazy crowds had gone. They'd left their litter though:
Mind you, the gulls didn't mind - lots of scraps for them to eat. I think someone must come and clean the mess up each morning, otherwise it'd be several feet deep by now...

There were still some people flying kites, this one looked cool:
But not as cool as this Great Black-backed Gull:As sunset approached the beach emptied of people
and we were left with the moon overhead
and the sun setting over the dunes
but now it's back to work, which is very busy for both of us over the coming two weeks.

Mike

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Great black backed gull

I have so many pictures from the weekend I'm going to have to split them into several posts... So, first of all here's the only one that's *not* about the wood.

We have a lot of gulls around here. Herring gulls are common over the winter, and the Black headed gulls have come back now the weather is warmer. But a new arrival, on the roofs of our house and our neighbours, is the Great black backed gull, which is larger than the herring gull. Enough of the talk, here's the pictures:As you can see, they're darker than the Herring gull. They're also pretty aggressive, driving off other gulls form the roof - perhaps because they're building a nest there!

Mike

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