The Meadow is still on top form at the moment with large numbers of birds to look through. Geese numbers have been as high as one thousand birds during peak times though they seem to be easing off now. It's been the usual suspects with Greylags, Canada's, the 150+ BARNACLE GEESE, the leucistic EGYPTIAN GOOSE again and up to 15 WHITE-FRONTED GEESE (with their BAR-HEADED GEESE cousins in tow too). I didn't know that there were this many in the feral White-front flock though it's a tough call to say that there are some wild birds in there as well (I'll need to think about that).
Duck numbers are still good though not spectacular with reasonable Wigeon and Teal numbers as well as some Shoveller. The evening GOOSANDER roost count has been as high as the mid teens this week. On the wader front we've had a couple of REDSHANK knocking around and we even had a visit from Farmoor's escaped AVOCET this evening as well. Lapwing numbers peaked at over 200 this week though as the floods have returned to normality so they have dispersed and we back to standard numbers now. There are still no Golden Plover - Otmoor seems to have them all at present with over 5000 birds there at the moment!
The gull roost has been good with good numbers of large gulls. The 2w YELLOW-LEGGED GULL has been seen on several occasions and this evening there was also a smart adult bird in the throng. The highlight however was a less than classic (but still good enough) 1w CASPIAN GULL which graced us with its presence this evening. It's always nice to find the first one of the season!
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| The 1w Caspian Gull |
In other news the STONECHAT is still hanging around in amongst the dead Nettle patches down near the bridge by Weir Cottage.
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