It had been many months since we had been over to Gupton/Castlemartin Corse. Today’s spring-like, warm sunshine and a chance of finding some choughs feeding in the valley proved an irresistible temptation. We had a brief chat with Richard Crossen, who was just leaving the area and probably saw some of the same birds he had seen earlier. It was fairly quiet bird-wise when we were there, but it was nice to see a female merlin, which some panicking jackdaws put us on to, a female-type kestrel and a female-type marsh harrier which was never very close.
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| The harrier was always distant when we were there; on this occasion perched on one of the dunes |
Waterfowl included the 2 mute swans and an immature whooper
swan, 20+ mallards, 30+ teal, a couple of wigeon, at least one shoveler,
half a dozen little grebes and a female tufted duck. A small flock of about 15
snipe was flying around occasionally and a couple of herons were feeding in the
shallows. We saw no lapwings or golden plovers. A lack of their presence was also
commented on by another observer in the hide who had seen two marsh harriers
before we arrived. Several water rails were calling occasionally but, overall, the
number of waterfowl seemed lower than expected; perhaps some were hiding among
the flooded rushes and reeds.
A barn owl had obviously been present in the hide judging by
the presence of some reasonably fresh-looking pellets and the presence of a
weasel corpse which had been deposited on the shelf.
As expected, a pair of choughs was feeding in one of the
damp fields. They were in quite a deep hollow which they might have excavated,
or perhaps a badger was responsible. Whatever, it seemed to be providing a good
quantity of soil invertebrate food.
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| The choughs were almost out of sight when they were feeding in the excavated hollow |
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| Female on the left; male (slightly longer bill and a larger bird) on the right |