Thursday 23rd October

This morning there were Redshank on both sides of the river mud, even the quartet that I saw yesterday. Two of the four birds are a little lighter than the others, maybe the adults have gained their winter plumage, so that the other two are youngsters from this year's brood - they remain darker. I had a beautiful view of male Kestrel at Sea Walls, he was flying around the cliffs, presenting a reddish brown back and black wing ends, with a grey head and tail and a black bit with a bar on his tail. Seeing him from above is a pleasure afforded by the view from the top of a couple of hundred foot of cliff!