Harriers

Mild, dry and sunny, SW3 - A glorious winter`s day with a warm Azorean airflow making it most pleasant for the monthly WeBS and harrier counts. Firstly, at Lade where the highlights were five Goldeneyes on south lake and 180 Shovelers and 450 Teal across both waters. This afternoon I joined CP on Walland Marsh where 29 Marsh Harriers came to roost at sunset, which equalled our previous highest count at this site. Also noted: a pair of Peregrines, a Common Buzzard, four Whooper Swans, 50 Fieldfares, eight Snipes, ten Skylarks, a Raven, a Great White Egret and calling Water Rails and Cetti`s Warblers, plus hundreds of corvids and Starlings going to roost. As we walked back to the car at dusk 49 Bewick`s Swans flew overhead, calling wildly. 

Elsewhere this past week there has been little change across the peninsula with the divers still on the bird reserve at either Burrowes, New Diggings or New Excavations, while the trio of Glossy Ibises have returned after a brief sojourn away, favouring the wet fields along the Lydd Road, together with up to eight Cattle Egrets in the same area.