This morning several of us, including Paul Culyer, Chris Taylor, Richard Ellis, Clive Hurford and myself, commenced the first of our planned winter bird surveys at Gupton. A small number of lapwings (perhaps 100 or so - Richard and Chris may have recorded more?) were resting in grassland near the farm and several golden plovers flew over, or maybe joined the increasing lapwing flock?
Paul and I walked through a central section. Here there were somewhere in the region of 100+ skylarks. A field planted with a bird-food crop was certainly drawing in seed-eating species. These included in excess of 350 linnets, small numbers of goldfinches and a flock of 20+ reed buntings. An abundance of millet etc was clearly proving attractive to these birds. It will be interesting to see how well this seed source holds up during the coming winter months.
Snipe were evident in some lower wetter fields. In the ones checked by Paul and myself, we probably saw less than 100 today but did have brief views of 3 jack snipe among them.
Yesterday, Annie and I had a look at Angle Bay (Kilpaison end) in glorious afternoon sunshine. Wigeon numbers feeding along the shore at low tide were quite impressive, well in excess of 1,500. At least 17 pale-bellied brents were feeding among them. Unfortunately disturbance by dogs chasing everything made it virtually impossible to obtain good views of the geese for long enough to see if any of them were ringed.
Bob
