Four of this morning's Red-throated Divers. Several small flocks were noted flying quite high up, the largest of which consisted of twelve birds.
I wasn't expecting much from this morning's sea-watch but it was surprisingly good. A cool, light southerly obviously does the trick at this time of year. I scoped the bay from up on Foxholes and, between 0745 and 0930, logged an impressive 82 Red-throated Divers flying west. Only two diver sp went east, one of which was a possible Black-throat. Otherwise - 2 Fulmars, just 5 Gannets, small numbers of auks, 8 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 17 Common Scoters and a flock of 14 Pintail.
Nothing out of the ordinary off Mudbank but it was really good to catch up with Josh Marshall who I haven't seen for years! Counts included 1 male Goldeneye, 5 Red-breasted Mergansers, 59 Wigeon, 8 Pintail, 35 Mallard, c55 Bar-tailed Godwits, c150 Knot, c75 Grey Plovers, 6 Great Crested Grebes and 1 Chiffchaff.
Otherwise, it's been a quiet week bird-wise (but not work-wise). Yesterday - the 8 Cirl Buntings were again by the slurry pit on Orcombe Point and a single Redpoll was noted on Withycombe Raleigh Common.
On the 25th the female Goldeneye was off Mudbank and on the 24th I counted 165+ Curlew and c20+ Sanderlings on Cockle Sands, along with 7 Eiders in the estuary off Bull Hill.
Finally, a count of 50 Great Black-backed Gulls roosting on the Imperial rugby ground was noteworthy on the 23rd.
One of nine Redwings feeding on cotoneaster berries at the end of our road. I'm praying they leave enough for any Waxwings that happen to be passing through...
Male Cirl Bunting - one of the eight-strong flock that's wintering around the slurry pit on Orcombe Point.
An amazing number of Red-throated Divers, Matt. There seemed unusually few in Norfolk, though we had one very obliging close-in bird.
ReplyDeleteLondon has had a bumper winter for divers- Great Northern & more unusually Black-throated. At times there have been 5 divers of 2 species at times- I don't recall so many.
Hi Neil - yep this was a record count for me. An lovely experience watching several flocks whiz by. Portland has been getting quite a few go through so there are presumably good numbers in Lyme Bay at the moment. It's interesting to see the numbers that Dungeness gets. Fairly regular counts involving hundreds of birds and 1300 on Jan 12th! Perhaps that's why there aren't too many in Norfolk! Glad you've been doing well in London for divers. I struggle to see Black-throated here in Exmouth but they get them reasonably often in Torbay. All the best. Matt.
ReplyDelete