Although winter thrushes have been around for a few weeks now, until quite recently (coinciding with the arrival of some colder weather) numbers in our area had been quite low. Over the last few days flocks of redwing and fieldfare have
been moving into the local hedgerows and taking advantage of this year’s
bumper crop of hawthorn and holly berries.
Numbers of redwing are in the order of
several hundreds, fieldfare numbers are lower but probably c.1-200. Also feeding on the berries are smaller numbers of
blackbirds, song thrushes and one or two mistle thrushes. At the current rate of activity, most of the berries in our local hedge will probably have been stripped within a few days or so. Finches are still a bit thin on the ground, but
a passing brambling called as it flew over during a morning shower yesterday.
This afternoon we had another look at Angle Bay (Rhoscrowther end) on the rising tide. Numbers of Brent geese had dropped to about
35 from 47 there last Sunday, but numbers of dunlin (500-700+) ringed plovers (c.70)
and pintail (at least 12) were all up on last weekends estimate. At least 3 great
crested grebes were also feeding in the bay.
Most of the shorebirds and waterfowl (including the growing wigeon flock) were briefly spooked by a passing female/immature marsh harrier flying
over towards Milford Haven. A few minutes later 2 buzzards heading across
the bay towards Angle village also created a bit of mayhem.