I covered the National Trust owned Lower Section of the Corse today, while Richard counted the Upper Corse. Was great to touch base with Rob on the way in today too.
I started off well with a flock of gulls sitting next to the slack comprising 51 Herring Gulls, 8 Lesser Black Back Gulls and 2 Great Black Back Gulls. There were also 6 Curlew.
For the rest of the count, I got 4 Mallard, 166 Teal, 2 Mute Swan, 3 Moorhen, 27 Snipe and 12 Shoveller. I also heard 2 Water Rail on the land upstream beyond the bounds of National Trust land.
The Teal and Shoveller count were based on a flock coming in for less than 3-4 minutes in front of the hide after being disturbed. They were quick to move back out of sight again. If this had not happened their numbers for the count for the lower section would have been 20 and 4!
Other birds of note were, I heard a Chough calling on my walk down, 2 of the Marsh Harrier occasionally lifted from reedbeds (an adult female and the 2CY bird), there was a flock of 120 startling not far from the slacks and the skylarks were up singing and chasing each other in field near Starman’s. A sign that territories are starting to be worked out!
Richard had a fantastic count on the Upper Corse. I will not spoil his thunder for the Dunlin count which is significantly higher than any previous WeBS count for Castlemartin Corse. Looking back at the previous WeBS records the previous highest count was in November 2014 with a total of 5!
Of the other birds he counted for WeBS he got 31 Mallard, 8 Pintail, 195 Teal, 5 Gadwall, 17 Shoveller, 2 Shelduck, a pair of Canada Geese, 1 Whooper Swan, 60 Lapwing, 40 Golden Plover, 44 Black Headed Gull, 8 Common Gull and 6 Herring Gull.
It is perhaps slightly unexpected that looking back at the records, it is the first time since 2004 that Canada Geese have made a WeBS count for Castlemartin Corse!
It has been quite noticeable over the last few months counts that the Upper Section has consistently had good numbers and diversity of species, whereas the Lower Section feels a bit more hit and miss with what is there.
P.S. Sorry no images to add this time!