We had a short visit to the eastern arm of Bosherston Lakes this afternoon. The (winter resident?) Black Redstart was present on the usual chimney pots near the Stackpole Centre. Will it stay all winter at this regular location for the species?
On the lakes, we noted 9 Goosanders (at least one drake) in the lower eastern arm plus a couple of Gadwall there too. Four Tufted Ducks (possibly the same birds that were here a few weeks ago) were present with other usual waterfowl in the upper arm. At least 5-6 Water Rails were calling from the reedbed and, below the court terrace, we noted a couple of Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff (not a tristis) in the same location we had seen one a few weeks back. We listened and looked for Firecrests but none were showing in places they have occurred frequently in the the past at this time of year.
Possibly the highlight however, was a flock of at least 25-30 Greenfinches that were starting to congregate in trees near the old Brewery at about 15:30. It looked like a pre-roost gathering and possibly others could have arrived by dusk. 30-40 years ago there used to be a fairly large Greenfinch winter roost (in excess of 100 birds on occasions) in nearby Lodge Park before mature stands of laurel were removed. It seems likely that a roost still persists somewhere in the area anyway: 25+ is the largest flock we have seen for a while.
On the way home we noted small flocks of Starlings heading towards Castlemartin Corse, presumably to roost at the reedbed roost. This site has been fairly regularly occupied during the last couple of decades or so at this time of year. Many thousands of Starlings are now roosting in the Miscanthus near Slebech/A40.