Winter Thrush 1km square survey bashing plus a brief look at Amroth from Bridleway above the beach

Annie and I have made some repeat winter visits over the last 2-3 days to several random 1km squares, counting thrushes. In the six squares we've looked at in South Pembs between Cosheston and Amroth our conclusion is, that in the areas we've checked, thrushes are not especially numerous so far this winter; slightly lower numbers found compared with the same period this time last year. Blackbirds have been noted mainly in animal-grazed pasture (especially horse-fields with plenty of dung) and on ivy. Large areas of un-grazed monoculture grasslands (mainly silage fields) have virtually been devoid of birds other than crows and starlings (plus gulls when slurry is being spread).

We've noted small flocks of redwings but they have been decidedly lacking in numbers, although there was  a flock of about 500 near Lawrenny the other day (not in one of our survey squares).

Starlings have been patchily distributed. The largest feeding flocks today (around 3 - 4,000 were at two farms where they were feeding inside cattle sheds and grain storage barns where they were not particularly welcomed! Red kite, buzzard and ravens were around clearly hoping for a Sturnus meal.

One of our squares today provided a brief over-view of the choppy sea at Amroth from the bridleway above the cliffs between Wiseman's Bridge and Amroth. It was too choppy to count the sea ducks etc but there were probably at least 300+ common scoters, 5 red-throated divers and a couple of great crested grebes up to an estimated 1km out from the view-point.

The not particularly good image of a distant view of part of the scoter flock and couple of divers was taken with a small Compact System Camera. The birds were about 1km away.