WeBS count for Sunday 13 November and sightings for 14 November

A summary of sightings from the last few days

Passerines and calm conditions

The last couple of mornings have been calm and warm, small perching birds have been showing well with around a dozen Chiffchaff seen/heard yesterday, Redwings and Fieldfares are still gorging on berries with repeated sightings of Lesser Redpoll, Siskin and Goldcrests about the site. The redpolls were feeding in birch trees and on willowherb in the Duck Decoy today.

Other sightings for today include the following

Rushy Hide

Spotted Redshank, 4 Redshank, Snipe and 5 Dunlin roosting/feeding on the islands with the Lapwing. Three Bewick's Swans, an Avocet, duck numbers have increased again.

Martin Smith Hide

Two Snipe in the cut vegetation.

Tack Piece

24 Snipe, Spotted Redshank with 8 Redshank, 410 Wigeon + dozen Shoveler and a few Pintail among the Teal (most of the Wigeon flushed mid-morning, a Goshawk was seen circling with a Sparrowhawk just off the reserve not long after, perhaps it was responsible for the clearance?)

Estuary Tower

118 Pintail, 400 Wigeon, c30 Teal and 3 drake Mallard rafting up on the Severn as the tide floods. A pair of Stonechat were flycatching along the Tack Piece hedge, Lesser Redpoll was flying around the hide and a Grey Wagtail was on the cattle trough.

The Canada/Barnacle/Greylag Goose flock on the Dumbles/Tack Piece has a variety of other species and hybrids accompanying them

Ross' Goose (we think this is an escaped/released individual based on arrival date and behaviour).
Lesser Snow Goose (unknown origin).

Two Barnacle x Greylag hybrids (one almost black with a white face that prefers Canada Geese for company, the greyer one with Barnacle Geese)
Chinese (Domestic) x Greylag (tall, large lumpy bill, pale brown stripe on back of neck)
Snow x Bar-headed Goose
Two Canada x Barnacle Geese

Top New Piece

Very busy today, a marked increase in wildfowl overnight- counts of 530 Teal, 120 Shoveler, 510 Wigeon and 82 Pintail. Lapwing Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit and Golden Plover in the shallows.

Bottom New Piece

28 Ruff feeding on the pasture with 400 Lapwing + a few Golden Plover and c60 Dunlin + c70 Greylag Geese

South Lake

Singing Chiffchaff + two more calling, Lapwing, Teal, Shoveler and a couple of Snipe on the wader scrape, Little Egret and Grey Heron + 28 Pochard and 90 Tufted Duck on the deep lake section.

Sunday 13 November Wetland Birds Survey

26 Cormorant
21 Little Egret
8 Cattle Egret
16 Grey Heron
18 Crane
71 Mute Swan
3 Bewick's Swan ( a new-in bird called Overshoot arrived)
43 Russian White-fronted Geese (increase from 30 late last week)
437 Canada Geese
276 Greylag Geese
215 Barnacle Geese
1 Mandarin
248 Shelduck
517 Wigeon
14 Gadwall
559 Teal
584 Mallard
93 Pintail
174 Shoveler
86 Pochard
1 Goosander (on the Severn on the ebb/ear low tide)
306 Tufted Duck
11 Water Rail
72 Moorhen
76 Coot
3 Avocet (two on the Severn, 1 Rushy lower pond)
1205 Golden Plover
38 Grey Plover
963 Lapwing
113 Curlew
67 Black-tailed Godwit
26 Ruff (22 on the Bottom New Piece, 28 feeding there today)
368 Dunlin
3 Spotted Redshank (one on Tack Piece and one Rushy today)
9 Redshank
68 Snipe ( 46 sleeping/sunbathing on Tack Piece yesterday)
1 Kingfisher
5 Little Grebe
1 Great Crested Grebe
739 Black-headed Gull (day feeding/resting birds- 1000s in the evening roost)
78 Lesser Black-backed Gull (day feeding/resting birds- 1000s in the evening roost)
33 Great Black-backed Gull (high tide roost on the Dumbles) (day feeding/resting birds- 1000s in the evening roost)
30 Herring Gull (day feeding/resting birds- 1000s in the evening roost)
109 Common Gull (day feeding/resting birds- 1000s in the evening roost)
Mediterranean Gull- (two adults on South Lake)

Late sightings of Common Darter and Migrant Hawker dragonflies!

A female Merlin, two male Sparrowhawks, 2 Marsh Harriers and a Kestrel were also seen yetserday.

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