Awash with birds
Its been a very busy morning with a dry spell for high tide, lots of birds on the river and lots of passerine movement too along the hedgerows.
Holden Tower
High tide shortly before 9am pushed all of the birds off the river, but a small party of Curlew and Redshank hung on to the very last. Also on the river was a single Oystercatcher, 3 Ruff and 4 Snipe on the spartina island. With a lack of mud to roost on 4 Avocet dropped onto the river and pretended to be ducks instead. Also on the river were at least 182 Shelduck, 21 Pintail and a single Great Crested Grebe. At least 52 Curlew roosted on the shoreline and 13 Little Egret were foraging amongst the sheep.
The Red-breasted Goose was with the Barnacle flock to the southern end of the Dumbles. A Merlin rocketed through the edge of the Dumbles and Top New Piece but was unsuccessful and then flew past the tower and headed north. A Marsh Harrier was to the north of the Tack Piece.
Passerines seemed to come in species orientated waves through the hedgerows and copse in front of the tower this morning, starting with Goldcrest which were replaced by Chiffchaff, which in turn were replaced by Blackbird and Song Thrush. Also noted were at least 4 Reed Bunting, single Bullfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Blackcap. Two Mistle Thrush were sat on the mistletoe in the hedge to the south of the hide and 3 Mandarins (2 drakes) were on the Long Ground Pool.
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South Lake Hides
Strangely quiet here this morning with 47 Black-tailed Godwit, 13 Dunlin and a single Redshank the only waders present other than 26 Snipe - 17 from the Discovery Hide and 9 very showy birds from the Hogarth Hide. A Grey Wagtail was foraging on the mud around the wader scrape. A Pintail was on the deep lake with the usual Mallard, Tufted Duck, Shoveler and 9 Pochard. A drake Mandarin was in the ditch under the bridge to the Hogarth Hide.
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Zeiss Hide
The birds have been somewhat unsettled here over the last few days for high tide, with them seemingly reluctant to spend too much time here. Peak counts this morning over high tide included 98 Dunlin, 3 Little Stint, 35 Golden Plover, Black-tailed Godwit72 Lapwing, 2 Ruff and 2 Curlew. A Stonechat was on the fence line between the Top and Bottom New Piece fields.
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Rushy Hide
The Spotted Redshank was feeding at the back of the lower pond with 2 Redshank. At least 2 Snipe were along the shoreline too. A single Pochard was amongst the Mallard and Tufted Duck on the upper pond along with 23 Shelduck and 5 Pintail. A small flock of 40 Dunlin dropped in over high tide.
