Not the best of weather this morning for the monthly wintering bird survey at Gupton Farm on Castlemartin Corse but having postponed twice due to the weather we really had to go for it. On the patch I covered around the farm buildings it was generally pretty quiet, the biggest flock being 40 Chaffinches. The gloom was, however, lifted by brief views of a splendid male Hen Harrier which flew over fields by Gupton and headed off towards the MOD ranges. A Chiffchaff also helped to make trudging around in the rain bearable.
Late morning the conditions improved a little and I carried on to do the Webs count a couple of days early. Unsurprisingly there are now large flooded patches on the Corse following the heavy rain of recent weeks. 550 Wigeon were feeding in the flooded fields together with just over 100 Teal, 38 Mallard, 200 Lapwing and 43 Curlew.
A lone adult Whooper Swan was in a field viewed from behind Castlemartin Church.
