28th January - well unfortunately, the Ring-billed Gull has failed to make a reappearance. The spit is continuing to resurface as the water level drops away and this has encouraged a return of many birds, primarily Lapwings and BH Gulls. Unfortunately, the usual loafing group of LWHG that has attracted the rarer large gulls in the past has yet to return - today there were only about 20 and most of these are forced to swim. Hopefully, as water levels drop further, there will still be time to turn up something good.
Last Friday, a small flock of 11 Golden Plover flew in. They flew around the visible spit, but decided against landing and departed to the SE over Cock Marsh. Goldies have been a bit tricky to get over the last year or so - they were much more regular before this. I think the flooded conditions have been the cause. Last year I had to wait until mid December for the year tick, so it is nice to get this one under the belt early on.
On Sunday, after the day's rain had stopped, I went down for the gull roost - ever hopeful! There were actually an awful lot of them, though mostly BHG and Commons. These 2 species formed a huge raft along the eastern side of the lake. I estimated about 3000 BHG and 1000 Common. The large gulls were much less well represented, though it was nice to see 36 GBBG. One of these had a NTGG colour ring code R1AT that I have sent over for details. There were probably only 150 Herring and just 50 LBBG and no scarce birds amongst them, which was a bit disappointing, especially as just 20 odd miles to the north at Calvert they had a Kumlien's, Iceland and Glaucous - greedy lot! On the way back to the car, a Tawny Owl was silhouetted in the small oak to the left of the path, which is often where I see them. Oh, a single collybita Chiffchaff was also around the viewpoint.
Today was much the same. The regular pair of Shelduck were joined by a third bird, but the male took a dislike to it and seemed to chase it off. 10 Siskins feeding in alders by the car park was my largest flock of the year so far. I took a walk to Emmett's farm and added Yellowhammer to the list with 3 birds in the trees to the west of the path by the pheasant cover. Linnets and Skylarks were also present, but not as numerous as my last visit.
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