Lade - warm, dry and sunny, light airs - Once the early morning murk had cleared it turned into a fine autumn day to be out and about across the peninsula. An hour around dawn in the back garden produced a trickle of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Goldfinches and a Song Thrush overhead, plus several Chiffchaffs and a Blackcap in the fir trees. Outback few passerines were noted in what was perfect weather conditions for early October migrants, but where are they all? I guess fewer and fewer migrants is just something we`ve got to expect these days; no surprise really, considering the way we`re plundering the planet with our excesses and burgeoning population.
Anyhow, that`s enough of that! Moving onto Scotney where there was a few birds, albeit mostly feral geese and gulls, Lapwings and Golden Plovers, ducks and Starlings. Outback, singles of Green and Common Sandpipers, Greenshank, Yellow Wagtail, Wheatear and several Tree Sparrows around the farm buildings lifted the gloom somewhat. Also noted across the site, Great White and Little Egrets, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Common Buzzard, Curlew, Redshank and plenty of Linnets and Meadow Pipits. On the bird reserve the highlight was a minimum count of 33 Snipe scattered across the islands in front of Makepeace hide, plus the usual nervy flock of 250 each of Golden Plover and Lapwing, two Dunlins and a Ruff. Several Bearded Tits showed well in the reed bed at Cook`s Pool, while over on ARC five Black-tailed Godwits landed in front of Hanson hide and at least 15 Chiffchaffs were actively snapping up insects in the warm sunshine at the pines. This afternoon a check of the bay on a falling tide produced few waders due to disturbance. Finished off with a seawatch from the boats along with the regular stalwarts where very little was moving apart from a few Gannets, Sandwich Terns, auks and a Red-throated Diver on the sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment