Black-tailed Godwits on the River Stour

28th September 2022

We are now slipping into the birding winter so time to have a look at the River Stour and the first stop was Mistley Quay to see if  the long-staying Mediterranean Gull was in residence. He was and in fact so pleased to see me he flew over and perched on the fence for his photo.

Today most of the birds seemed to be at Manningtree so time for a walk along the river wall to see what was there. There were a dozen or so Little Egrets on the other side of the river in their high tide roost but this individual chose this side to do a bit of fishing.

There were also a few ducks around including four Mallard, a handful of Teal and also good to see some returning Wigeon although still in eclipse plumage.

There were also hundreds and hundreds of waders but within binocular range I could only find a handful of Redshank, the rest were all Black-tailed Godwits gathering for their high tide roost. The roost today was going to be interesting as it is going to be a particularly high tide and therefore the birds may get forced out of their favoured spots.

At first the godwits were feeding along the muddy margins, gradually making their way to the roost.

This is a juvenile bird still to moult into its winter plumage.

A number of the birds were colour-ringed and local birder Ed Keeble was there recording all the colour combinations so that he could establish where they had been ringed and subsequent sightings. This particular individual was ringed at Snettisham in Norfolk on the 2nd September 2019 and has since been observed 43 times including the Stour Estuary, Freiston Lincs, Colne Estuary, Stoke-by-Nayland Suffolk, Oare Marshes Kent and Ouse Washes Cambs. One of the individuals has been coming back 15 years

The roost is now gathering with the birds jostling for position.

As the tide continued to rise more and more birds were flying in until there must have been 200-300 birds right in front of us.

Then as I suspected the water got too high and they all flew to higher ground on the other side of the river.

Well what a spectacle and a special thanks goes to Ed for sharing with me his detailed knowledge of the area and the birds behaviour, and for providing me with details of the history of the colour-ringed bird.