Now that we're into March, the gulling season is definitely drawing to a close. Sure, there are still Mediterranean Gulls to look for and in fact the next couple of weeks are the prime spring passage for this species but in general numbers are dwindling. However, as gull interest wanes so interest in waders starts to pick up and today was definitely a "wader day". It started out well enough with the OYSTERCATCHER and 5 REDSHANK knocking about and I soon discovered a couple of spring CURLEW to add to the tally. However as it was starting to get dark (though it was rather gloomy even at the best of times today) a splendid AVOCET turned up along the North Shore. I put the word out and Alex Martin managed to twitch it though annoyingly it disappeared before others who wanted to see it could get there. It may still be about though the Meadow does have a habit of attracting birds that just pop in for a short time in the evening before moving on.
A digiscoped record shot in the evening gloom
In other news over the last few days, there have been serveral DUNLIN knocking around, a maximum of 6 REDSHANK and just a few Golden Plover. On the gull front the best has been a few YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS. There are still plenty of ducks around including good numbers of PINTAIL.
No comments:
Post a Comment