The Beach and North Bull Wall

The most common on the sandy beach from autumn through to spring are ringed plovers, sanderlings but many hundreds of bar-tailed godwit and oystercatcher occur on the ebb tide.

In the spring and summer months common, arctic and sandwich terns can be seen regularly from the Bull Wall and occasionally roseate and little tern also occur. Further out into the bay during the summer months manx shearwaters and gannets can venture close to the beach especially during strong onshore winds. Over one hundred Kittiwakes from local colonies feed beside the Bull Wall most days.

From late summer through winter the Bull Wall is the most reliable place to see great-crested grebes, common scoters and red-breasted mergansers. Long-tailed duck, red-throated and great northern divers are scarce but occur in most winters off the Bull Wall and in Sutton Creek. Cormorants are a common sight in all seasons but largest numbers can be seen as they roost on the half-tide rocks between the Marian Statue and the Bull Lighthouse. Turnstones and a few purple sandpipers feed on the rocks below the statue.

The newest habitat on to evolve on the island is the small Phragmite reed marsh where the beach and Bull Wall meet. At present this habitat is mainly of botanical interest but small numbers of swallows have been seen roosting here. The shallow freshwater/brackish pools that form in winter are good places to look for snipe. In October 2008 a pectoral sandpiper were seen here.

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