Sightings

Main sighting: Sparrowhawk

Female soaring over village mid afternoon

Main sighting: Little Grebe

7 Little Grebe – it’s unusual to see so many grouping together here. Also Little Egret and an otter but very few duck. Light passage of House Martin and Meadow Pipit.

Main sighting: little egret

Little egret feeding in shallows near bridge.

Main sighting: Fieldfare

2 isolated birds at the seawall farm on Hawthorn this morning alongside pre migration Swallows

Main sighting: Red Grouse

6 red grouse came up out of the heather in very wet weather. Plenty of meadow pipits ,a few skylarks plus 2 wheatears

Main sighting: Lesser yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs found by Darryl Spittle. 3 Ruff, 3 Little Stint, Grey Plovers, Dunlin, Curlew, Snipe, Golden Plover

Main sighting: Little Egret

A low WeBS count on a glorious day: Little Egret, 2 Kingfisher, 7 Goosander, 160 Canada Geese in loose flocks downriver, domestic Mallard (probably Black East Indian – 2 were present last December), 4 Grey Wags and passage of c300 House Martin, fewer Swallows and c20 Mipits. Balsam still obscuring views.

Main sighting: Curlews and Waders

Attended Goldcliff Lagoons before dawn at 6.15 am to 11.30 am.
Assisting Mike Smart with Curlew Observations again.
Adding to Nevs report there was a very good showing of Curlews with several colour ringed birds noted on Priors and Monks Lagoon ( some of the pics on my blog).
In all we reckon 400 Curlews were roosting when the tide reached its peak.
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It was a real wader fest and I have been reviewing my pics of the flocks and noted –
1. Three Curlew Sandpipers
2. Two Little Stints
3. 1 x Sanderling
4. 1x Grey Knot
5. 2 x Ruff
It was good to see Bar Tailed Godwits in with the Curlews.

The Glossy Ibis seen I believe is “Flossy”. The new bird seen earlier in the week I have not seen since or heard of any reports of it being observed again on the reserve.

Main sighting: Ruff

7 ruff seen at about 1.00pm

Main sighting: Little Grebe

Six Little Grebe (4 and 2) on a very quiet river at lunchtime today.

Main sighting: Waders

Bar Tailed godwit 1 – Dunlin 11 – Curlew 6 – Raven 2 – Wigeon 31

Main sighting: Bar-tailed Godwits

Dawn – 11.30hrs. Rooks, kingfisher (Paul only), 2 buzzards (one light-morph), skylarks 8 passing over quite high, mute swans with 7 cygnets, 3 chiffchaffs in the hedgerow, female marsh harrier and 1 juv gt black-backed gull. Redshank Platform – 15 knot, 3 grey plovers, 415 dunlin (losing their black bellies now), 4 ruff, 51 ringed plovers, siskins overhead, 4 little egrets, small groups of swallows (averaging 15-20 per group) with some house martins mixed in, 5 common snipe, 46 shelduck (more over the sea wall), glossy ibis (flew off towards Uskmouth around 0900hrs), 3 gadwall, 2 greenshank, 41 teal and ravens. Snipe Platform – 343 black-tailed godwits (including the 2013 Solent ringed bird), 62 redshanks, 22 more knot, 1 water rail feeding along the edge of the reeds and a juv curlew sandpiper mixed in with some dunlin. Hide 3 – 172 curlew (6 of which were ringed birds) with 9 bar-tailed godwits mixed in, 18 avocet which came in over the seawall, 1 heron, female kestrel and a big movement of meadow pipits along the fence lines in excess of 200+.