at last a pair of garganey at west rise! the rain brought down a few hirundines and a dunlin flew over. water pipits/scan rock pipits present but impossible to get an accurate count on the number as they were coming up from all sides of the lake. nice to see 8 species of passerine feeding together on the bank.

got to arlington after the rain cleared. it was still and quiet with virtually nothing on the water but in the distance i spied a flock of 5 birds, i knew what i wanted these to be, and when i got to the dam for a closer look surprisingly they were:-). i wondered if these would be an indicator of what was happening on the coast...

wandered down to the beach in the evening to collect some food for the fish and ended up staying 2 and half hours. best seawatch i've had for years with the highlights being 141 little gulls and an incredible 26 small grebes (seaford had another 15 in the morning). distance/light/sleeping was not helpful, but i thought the first 3 were black-necks and the rest either slavs or grebe sp, biggest flock 9. little gulls were close in and superb, only wish the breakwater was open. evening seawatches are what i missed most on the iow, they just don't happen over there.