Monday 13 February 2017

Yesterdays windy WeBs counts etc

Observations along along Carew/Cresswell Rivers and Cosheston Pill early yesterday morning indicated that numbers of most wintering waterbird species had declined since January.

Wigeon numbers were very low on Carew/Cresswell system but 75 at Cosheston was a reasonable early February count there. Teal numbers had declined but 300+ on the Carew was reasonable for this time of year.

Shelduck on the Carew/Cresswell were up - c.150 was quite a good February count; many there were displaying and paring up. Wader numbers were generally down. Few lapwings were present (e.g. c. 200 near Garron Pill), curlew numbers were noticeably down on January figures, as were numbers of dunlin and redshank. Greenshank numbers were fairly typical for the period, with at least 4 present along the Carew River and another at Cosheston where 7 black-tailed godwits were also evident.

Over at Angle Bay there were a few hundred mixed waterfowl - mostly wigeon and teal, at least 5 pintails and a similar number of shovelers. A few hundred dunlin plus at least 15 bar-tailed godwits were feeding as the tide dropped. A flock of 25 grey plovers was resting on their usual rocks at Fresh West/Furzenips area.