As Storm Alex nudged north from France the barometer plunged to 980mb, the lowest reading so far this year. Worst of the rain passed through early afternoon and in a fresh north-northeasterly, a number of observers ventured out to see what had been brought in on the evening tide.
Highlights were at least two Golden Plover, a male Ruff, a late Whimbrel and a Black-tailed Godwit. An impressive count of 46 Pintail was the third highest count here in 40 years and likely involved birds displaced from other parts of the estuary during the storm.
Counts of more regular waterbirds in the estuary corner and around The Bight were 679 Wigeon, 338 Redshank, 218 Dunlin, 208 Teal, 120 Curlew with a number of locally colour-ringed individuals; 78 Knot, 57 Bar-tailed Godwit, 52 Great Black-backed Gull, 22 Mute Swan, 38 Ringed Plover, 18 Grey Plover, 11 Common Gull, eight Little Egret, seven Greenshank, seven Turnstone, two Grey Heron, two Mallard, a Common Snipe, a Lesser Black-backed Gull and the Slavonian Grebe. Also hundreds of Oystercatcher and mixed gulls were present, as usual. No Brent Goose of any ssp were present this evening.
Unusual at the late hour, parties that totaled at least 50 Swallow flew northeast before dusk. Also noted two Wheatear and a Goldcrest. A small tern sp. was offshore.
No comments:
Post a Comment