Wader numbers in the lower
Eastern Cleddau were less than a few days ago. There were still 5-600 dunlin
present but fewer lapwings today. From a viewpoint across to Sprinkle Pill from
the shore near Brickyard, we could see that the golden plovers were back over
there, resting in a long dense line on the mud, occasionally up in the air. A lapwing
flock in the air was also quite impressive, possibly at least 800-1,000 or so.
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| One of four photos taken to try and record the whole flock. If we get time we might try stitching them together to see if we can count them. |
At Landshipping slipway, we watched squadrons of Canada geese leaving the Eastern Cleddau, heading for the pasture near Sprinkle Pill. As they came towards us from Rigan Pill, a head on view of one bird suggested it could have been a white-fronted goose, as it had an obvious white blaze on its forehead and seemed to have a brown head/neck. Closer views as they flew past, showed that it was obviously a hybrid. The blaze looked quite a dirty-white-colour. Its neck, body and wings had features typical of a Canada and a Greylag.
We don't often see any more
than a couple of great black-backs close to home but this morning about a dozen
were coming into a field along with 4 red kites, 2-3 ravens and various other
corvids – the attraction being the carcass a long-dead ewe. A flock of at least 2-300 chaffinches was
feeding in one of the weedy stubble fields, but there were no obvious
bramblings with them. A few raptors were displaying today. One of them, a
sparrowhawk, was chased off by one of the hundreds of carrion crows in the
area.
