Today's sightings
A nice collection of birds today with the South Lake being the busiest of the hides. We've also had our highest day count of Bewick's Swans for the year with 160 birds present this morning.
Zeiss Hide
A good mixed flock of 400+ Lapwing and 250+ Dunlin also contained 5 Golden Plover, 3 Ruff and 2 Oystercatcher. Feeding along the near edges of the pools were at least 28 Snipe, some showing well. A Water Rail briefly joined them to the right of the reedbed that is immediately in front of the hide. A Little Egret was opposite the Van de Bovenkamp Hide.
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South Lake Hides
A pair of Avocet dropped in mid-morning to join the wader flock which included 1200+ Lapwing, 4 Oystercatcher, a single Redshank, 134 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Ruff and 20+ Dunlin.
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Holden Tower and Walkway Hides
The Dumbles were relatively quiet this morning before the Bewick's Swans started arriving. At least 9 Skylark were buzzing around but there was no sign of the Lapland Bunting. A small flock of 11 Golden Plover were out on the pools first thing along with the flock of 200+ Barnacle Geese. Two Ruff were on the shoreline of the Long Ground Pool.
Three Cranes (named Cotton, Oakie and Evie) were on the Tack Piece along with 12 Curlew, 80+ Wigeon, 150+ Teal and a small number of Pintail and Shoveler. A pair of Oystercatchers from the Rushy dropped in mid-morning.
The Water Rail has been showing very well from the Willow Hide, feeding underneath the bird feeders at close range. Please take care when approaching as the bird can be easily flushed, but with patience it will return. A pair of Little Grebe were calling on the pool from the Knott Hide, pairing up for the coming breeding season.
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