Distant waters...

Vejr: direction - E; speed - 1 m/s; cloud cover - 3/8; visibility - 15 km; temperature - 10°C

Today was the first day I counted on my own (not that I have not attempted it before, but the two previous times were always ruined by a bad weather front). And I really have to say: I salute to Henrik on how easy he makes it look, I think it's rather difficult, although I enjoyed counting a lot today (it just feels different to just count with someone else or to be completely on your own and have all the responsibility). 
The weather was nice, although, due to the very low tide, sandbanks streched out very far today. When the first quarter started with rain, I expected it to be a bad day, but luckily the really bad clouds passed me and I only caught about 5 minutes of rain. However, it cleared up perfectly (even so much that the air started flickering, which made counting distant birds really hard). Waders were more frequent compared to the previous days and Oystercatchers, Sanderlings and Dunlins showed up again in small flocks. Again, Red-throated Divers passed by in a few small flocks and I really love them a little more every time I see them. Barn Swallows made it really difficult to count passerines, as they decided to hunt just above me (thus complicating my counts rather strongly). Besides, I saw the usual suspects like Dunnocks and pipits. So, nothing special at all today, maybe for the better, that would have probably made things even more difficult for me :D. As the water backed off so far, the gulls thought it would be nice to give me a hard time counting them and decided to perch on the sandbanks far away. Still, I took the challenge and managed to count them, although I did not see any scarse or rare species. 

In the evening, I visited the beach once more and took a few nice pictures, as the conditions were amazing this evening. Due to the way the gulls chalenged me today, I decided to post a picture in their honour. Thus, here is a picture of a Herring Gull, just passing by in a really nice lightsituation:

Tomorrow, Henrik, Jimmy (who is staying at the station at the moment) and Bent will be here again, so more eyes will probably see more birds tomorrow. Until then, stay tuned,
Christian