At Landshipping yesterday, we noted at least 4-5 whimbrels (their
numbers are clearly starting to build up) and a few curlews on the shore. A
redshank was back in the area and we gather from Jane Hodges (during her second-round
count of shelduck families) that she had noted a greenshank a few days ago
at Millars Park lagoon area. We didn't manage to find this
one yesterday.
A common sandpiper was feeding on the muddy shore of the Eastern Cleddau, upstream from Landshipping slipway. It seemed to be exploiting lugworms almost its own body length.
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| Small wader long worm! |
Recently independent juvenile choughs are now starting to flock up. This afternoon we noted a dozen or so near Old Castle Head, Manorbier. A few of them were not yet particularly streetwise to the potential perils of a passing juvenile (seemingly independent) male peregrine. Happily for the choughs, his hunting skills were pretty poor and a half-hearted attempt to catch one was not very impressive!
Earlier today Paul Culyer (NRW) mentioned seeing a flock of 22 choughs at Stackpole. Many of these were probably juveniles. It’s possible that the adult choughs Derek mentioned in an earlier posting could have been two or three-year old non-breeding birds. They move around in variable-sized feeding flocks (soon to include this year’s juvs as well). Of course, they might have been some of the local breeding birds enjoying a bit of socialising and feeding together in a good spot now that the kids have left home.