Several
of us did a repeat winter bird survey at Gupton this morning. A survey organised
by Clive Hurford, and undertaken with the approval of the National
Trust. As well as Clive, the surveyors were Richard Crossen, Mike and Kathy
Young-Powell, Holly Harries, Paul Culyer and myself.
Before we
started out, a flock of c.30 bar-tailed godwits flew east along the Fresh West
shore towards Frainslake – quite a nice species and a good-sized flock for this
particular location. After we finished the survey several grey plovers were
flying around the rocky shore below the car park - hopefully their numbers will
increase here in the coming weeks.
Numbers
of birds were a bit disappointing. There was a reasonable-sized flock of 70-80
curlews feeding in damp grassland near Starman’s Hall and snipe numbers were
probably quite good, scattered across the area. NB final accumulated count
tallies for all species are still to be determined.
Most
passerines were generally a "bit thin" on the ground with very few
chaffinches and linnets seen at all. A flock of about 70 skylarks was in one
area but they were not particularly numerous today. A couple of jack snipe were
flushed in the damp grassland (typically not seen until almost trodden on!).
The female marsh harrier was seen by some observers over the reed-bed. Other
raptors included a peregrine and a merlin.
We didn't record any golden plovers
at Gupton this morning but late in the day a distant flock of at least 1,000 to
1,500 was flying high over Sprinkle Pill (seen from Landshipping). They
appeared to be heading towards the Cresswell river (perhaps Garron Pill) so
there are probably some good-sized flocks still around.
There
seems to have been a small influx of redwings around the Martletwy/Landshipping
area in recent days. Late this afternoon a few small flocks (each c. 30-50)
were feeding in the local stubble fields with small flocks of chaffinches.
We’ve had no recent sightings though of our local (Martletwy) small
yellowhammer population.
Bob