Sunday 25 January 2015

Freshwater West area this morning

The usual expected waders were roosting on the beach this morning at high tide. These included: 42 ringed plovers, 84 oystercatchers, 40+ curlew but only a few grey plovers. Perhaps more will arrive if the weather gets colder.



Further up the hill near Castlemartin  I noted several hundred lapwings just inside the Range with a few hundred linnets and a couple of hundred chaffinches. Ravens were busy nest-building at one regular site - when not chasing off the local buzzard.

There weren't too many raptors about where I was but singles of kestrel, merlin and sparrowhawk put in an appearance before quite persistent drizzle started to set in and I decided to call it a day.

And now for something completely different. The RSPB's "Big Garden Birdwatch" is clearly popular. Over the weekend records have apparently come in on-line from more than 110,000 people across the UK, with over three and a quarter million birds counted so far. 6,000 extra ones were added whilst this paragraph was being written!  

Bob