More White-fronts
A chill in the air and an easterly(ish) airflow has bought some arrivals this morning with White-fronted Geese increasing to either 78 birds or maybe 89, with a flock of 11 seen flying in over the river and landing on the Tack Piece after this morning's count of birds on the Bottom New Piece. Bewick's Swan numbers are also up with 68 birds on the reserve today.
Holden Tower
A flock of 10 Cranes were on the Dumbles this morning along with 3 White-fronted Geese on the Dumbles scrape, 2 adults and a juvenile. Two Peregrine were out on the Warth to the south of the cross fence along with 169 Barnacle Geese.
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South Lake Hides
The wind direction isn't great for the birds this morning with the Pochard on the deep lake very flighty. The wader scrape was very empty with just a small flock of Black-headed Gulls, 40 Herring Gulls and a few Teal to count.
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Zeiss Hide
An unusually quieter Top New Piece, possibly as a result of two Sparrowhawk patrolling the seawall. Most of the waders had moved to the Bottom New Piece over the hedge leaving a few hundred Lapwing and duck including 563+ Wigeon, 81 Pintail and 300+ Teal. Only 7 Snipe were on the islands to the north and other waders included 16 Black-tailed Godwit and a single Redshank.
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Kingfisher Hide
The White-fronted Goose flock was feeding in the Bottom New Piece with 71 birds present, including 21 juveniles. The field was also littered with several hundred Lapwing and Dunlin.
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Robbie Garnett Hide
Three White-fronted Geese were hidden amongst the Canada Goose flock which itself numbered 406 individuals. Several hundred Wigeon and Teal were in the field as usual along with 23 Pintail and 11 Shoveler. Around 9am a flock of 11 White-fronted Geese flew in over the river and landed on the Tack Piece, possibly new arrivals rather than birds moving from the south of the reserve.
