Sue is down for the weekend so we got a birding session this afternoon. We did the high tide pre-roost at East Side/Pagham Spit HERE. Seems like Dunlin numbers are increasing with an estimated 3000 birds and Grey Plovers at approx 400 but seemingly Knot numbers are lower with 200 and we didn't see any Golden Plovers which are definitely clearing out locally. There were at least 1000 Black-tailed Godwits flying around White's Creek and we counted 375 Great Black-backed Gulls and in with them were 10 Lesser Black-backs, a 3rd cycle and an adult Yellow-legged Gull and a first-winter Caspian-type Gull (a little distant to be certain). There was also a couple of Barwits in the roost. Just from that viewpoint across the harbour we estimated about 10,000 birds including a conservative 2000 Lapwing and 1500 Brents. The other guys had larger counts earlier on in the day HERE with 4000 Lapwings, 2500 Brents, 300 Golden Plover, 300 Wigeon, 100 Teal and Pintail, 250 Common Gulls (flocks have been flying over the garden recently too indicating some kind of movements occurring) and 50 Meds so there has to be around 14-15000 birds in the harbour now and that's not including any large numbers of Black-headed and Herring Gulls which could add another few thousand. The most obvious increases recently have been in Blackwit, Dunlin, Avocet, Common Gull and Med Gull.
On the way back we noticed that the Glossy Ibis was back in the traveller field with 6 Cattle Egret and soon after news broke of the Snow Bunting back at East Head so we headed off over there for the last hour of the day. Now on 112 for the Peninsula year list HERE.
1 comment:
A great afternoons birding. Glossy ibis seen whilst negotiating a flooded road was a definite highlight.
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