Thursday 7 January 2016

Castlemartin Corse

A very windswept Corse this morning but nice to see the sun. Pretty quiet on the main, western, part of the Corse - a Merlin flew past and over to the reedbed near Starmans Hall and there were 80 Lapwing roosting in the field past Starmans. A short spell in the hide was rewarded with just a few Snipe and Black-headed Gulls flying around.

The far, east, end of the Corse was different altogether with a good mixture of a very large number of birds. I met Richard Ellis there and he had already done a good job in counting c.60 Black-tailed Godwits and 11 Greylag Geese. The fields here are much flooded and on the water, around the margins and on fields there were 1000+ Lapwing, 400+ Golden Plover, 100s of Wigeon and Teal together with 100+ Mallard, a few Shoveller, 2 drake Pintail and plenty of Herring Gulls with a few Commons mixed in. As we watched the spectacle a Merlin passed over (probably a male) and the female Marsh Harrier appeared from the main reedbed giving some nice views in the strong sunlight.

The slog back to the car park at Freshwater West through the mud and against the wind was a killer but I had a further reward with another Merlin which flicked over the road near Newton Farm on the  drive back.