Goldeneye provides quantum of solace

The Safari reckons you can't beat a bit of James Bond for a but of modern day buckle-swashing!

Patch 2 was a misty, poor visibility day today but at least it wasn't fully knitted fog! Our morning session on the almost full tide wasn't up to much with little being seen other than a few small flocks of Common Scoters and a single Shelduck flying south towards the estuary.

The lunchtime safari was more productive even though the visibility hadn't improved much. As soon as we got to the wall we saw five Shelducks going north. A scan along the other side wall itself gave us just seven roosting Turnstones. As the tide ebbed a little more and revealed some runnels a good count of 31 Redshanks appeared from somewhere unseen, the wall has a slight bend in it before it terminates so they were probably just round that.

Out at sea we could just about make out about the shapes of group  of 16 Cormorants with about a dozen associated muggers (Great Black Backed Gulls) waiting for the chance of a steal. Another Cormorant was fishing successfully well to the left of them and much closer in and without the hassle of the muggers. Also fishing successfully was one of the two Great Crested Grebes but not the single Red Throated Diver which just drifted about rather aimlessly.

A male Goldeneye (82, 26) flew south very close in. Another useful species for the list that can't be relied upon to be found in any given year, so we were well chuffed with that.

Back home our bait had been severely depleted so we assumed that Stealth-cam would have captured the action.

We were right...A Magpie came and went a few times

As did a a Woodpigeon, two Collared Doves were 'captured' sitting on the pergola but didn't descend

 Stealth-cam captures all manner of bizarre action

And over night added a new species to its list...probably a Long Tailed Field Mouse, the one that's eating its way through the contents of the garage edible or not, no doubt.

We missed a good bit of action the  other evening/over night when the bait had gone but nothing was recorded so we changed the sensitivity setting from Low to Normal. The pics are taken at 3MP and are quite heavy crops. The wall is seven feet (2.1m) away from the camera. Technical details for the benefit of KB who was asking about such cameras recently.

Where to next? The small matter of another Winter Thrushes Survey to attend to in the morning and we might follow that with a quick sprint to the coast for the Purple Sandpipers.

In the meantime let us know who's sneaking around in the dark in your outback.

And have a look here at who or what was going bump in the night the other day.