Sunday 16th November
A late afternoon visit to the Meadow today found conditions overcast but mild with hardly a breeze. The lake continues to get smaller surprisingly quickly and the boundaries are now not too far off "normal" size.
Despite plenty of people on Sunday afternoon walks there were good numbers of birds. There were at least 26 RUFF and now 4 REDSHANK as well as 7 or 8 DUNLIN and quite a few SNIPE showing quite well. though no sign of the godwits. There were similar numbers of PINTAIL to previously as well as the other usual ducks. There was a really good flock of GOLDEN PLOVER this evening with more coming in all the time the numbers must have been getting close to the 1000 mark by the time I left. The birds were a bit flighty and twice went up only to settle again. The third time unfortunately they settled behind the gull flock so I was only able to see a portion of them. Despite careful looking each time the flock was "resuffled" there was once again no sign of the elusive American Golden Plover. A single KINGFISHER flew low across the "lake".
The gull roost was even smaller than yesterday but at there were at least 4 white-headed gulls which were probably YELLOW LEGGED GULLS.
Despite plenty of people on Sunday afternoon walks there were good numbers of birds. There were at least 26 RUFF and now 4 REDSHANK as well as 7 or 8 DUNLIN and quite a few SNIPE showing quite well. though no sign of the godwits. There were similar numbers of PINTAIL to previously as well as the other usual ducks. There was a really good flock of GOLDEN PLOVER this evening with more coming in all the time the numbers must have been getting close to the 1000 mark by the time I left. The birds were a bit flighty and twice went up only to settle again. The third time unfortunately they settled behind the gull flock so I was only able to see a portion of them. Despite careful looking each time the flock was "resuffled" there was once again no sign of the elusive American Golden Plover. A single KINGFISHER flew low across the "lake".
The gull roost was even smaller than yesterday but at there were at least 4 white-headed gulls which were probably YELLOW LEGGED GULLS.