March 9th
An excellent survey that could not have started any better at 7.40am as we headed down the track, in the distance we could see a number of swans as we approached and these materialised into 16 Bewick’s as we got closer, it looked like 5 immatures and 11 adults.
They were feeding on the flooded fields and our only worry was that they would flush when we started our transects, in particular mine as I had to pass within 40 metres of them, this I did and flush they did. To my relief they had a brief fly round and then dropped down about 200 metres east on another flooded section, they were still present when we left at 1.15pm.
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| Part of the Herd |
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| Yellow ringed bird |
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| Coming back |
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| Relocated - best viewed distantly from sea wall |
Raptors were again prominent on the inland section with a pair of Peregrines hunting the Teal flock and a single female Merlin perched up, 2 Common Buzzards and 2 female Marsh Harriers made for a good selection, a Kestrel on the track rounded it off.
The riverwatch wasn’t bad either, nothing major but plenty of movement, in 2 hours from peak tide birds of note seen were
Dark Bellied Brent Goose – 15
Red Breasted Merganser – 1
Pintail - 10
Gannet – 11
Despite the bad light and murky conditions a good survey made all the better by the presence of the swans and the first real signs of spring, lambs were on show, hopefully they will be ok as snow is on its way.
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| There in for a hard time in the coming days |
No early Wheatears or White Wagtails despite scanning every blade of grass and fence post.
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