Carpets becoming rugs

19 February 2019

Duck numbers continue to drop and a few of our Bewick's Swans have also departed.

Duck numbers continue to drop and a few of our Bewick's Swans have also departed. Most notable has been the drop in the number of Teal seen during the WeBS count at the weekend, but our Wigeon flocks are also reducing. My unofficial collective noun for Wigeon is a carpet, owing to their formation feeding as they spread across an area of grass. But with fewer birds around our carpets are shrinking and becoming more like rugs, just covering small patches.

South Finger Reedbed
A Chiffchaff was calling near the viewing screen overlooking the settling pool. On the pool were 24 Tufted Duck and pair Shoveler, plus a Grey Heron on the shoreline hidden in the reeds.

Holden Tower
Six Cranes were on the Dumbles this morning along with the flock of 150 White-fronted Geese. Three Curlew were on the spartina island, a pair of Peregrine were on the fence as usual. A pair of Oystercatcher were on the Pillbox Pool, and over on the Long Ground Pool were 73 Tufted Duck and 36 Pochard.

Zeiss Hide
A couple of flocks of Dunlin came to 387 birds amongst the Lapwing and Golden Plover flock. Three Snipe were on the island. Three groups of Wigeon were spread across the field and came to a total of 1385 birds. A small group of 7 Great Black-backed Gulls were on the island, a Kestrel was sat in the copse, a Buzzard was sat on the seawall and a pair of Oystercatcher were in front of the Van de Bovenkamp Hide.

Robbie Garnett Hide
A few waders were on the Tack Piece including 38 Redshank, 11 Ruff, 3 Dunlin, 59 Curlew plus a few hundred Lapwing.

South Lake
An increase of Avocet again to 39 birds, with Black-tailed Godwit also up to 100 birds. Several hundred Lapwing plus a few Dunlin and Golden Plover were on the back of the scrape along with 12 Ruff, 17 Curlew and a pair Oystercatcher. The deep lake hosted 8 Cormorant and a Great Crested Grebe.

Rushy Hide
We are down to 74 Bewick’s Swans this morning. Also present were 58 Shelduck, a single Redshank and 2 Snipe.