Sanderling, the RSPB website says, "do not breed in the UK, but are a winter visitor and passage migrant in spring and autumn, journeying to and from their high Arctic breeding grounds." So what were a small flock of the birds doing foraging along the front of the rising tide at Littleferry this morning? Some were in their brownish summer plumage, most were in their duller, grey winter gear.
Why, in mid-July, are there hardly any jellyfish along the beach, the few that are coming ashore being moon jellyfish - we still haven't seen a lion's mane this year.
Why are the northern marsh orchids which, only a few days ago, were in wonderful bloom almost all dying back....
....leaving the six-spot burnets bereft?Lst year some were still flowering at the end of the month.
Why is Ferry Wood blossoming with several species of fungi, including this hintapink brittlegill?
This view along a cloudy, drizzly Littleferry beach may provide at least part of the answer. During the day the temperature isn't reaching 20C but it's dropping to 11C at night - not at all friendly.
As for the sanderling, I hope they stay as I love watching them as they dash up and down the beach feeding in the swash of the waves; and we're desperately short of other shore birds. Today at Littleferry, aside from sanderlings and the usual gulls, we saw a couple of eider, a dozen or so oystercatchers, a few terns, a cormorant and.... well, it's not a bird, but we did see a seal.
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