Friday 12th December
This morning overcast and drizzly but still rather cold.
Despite the floods being mostly frozen over this morning there was lots of bird life around: at least 26 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS present still together with 12 RUFF and 4 DUNLIN. The birds were rather flighty and the ruff and dunlin ended up on the grass between the track (from Walton Well Rd to Aristotle Lane) and the railway. This area is not usually frequented by birds so was rather unusual though I suspect that it's merely until the floods thaw out enough for them to resume feeding. There were at least 100 GOLDEN PLOVER some of which were calling rather plaintively in a manner befitting of the dark and gloomy conditions. All the usual ducks were present and a single SNIPE flew over. There was a COMMON GULL standing around on the ice with the black-headeds.
Late afternoon update: In addition to this morning's birds, at least 4 REDSHANKS around, a few feeding SNIPE, now 7 DUNLIN but only a few RUFF left. A good gull roost tonight (perhaps 1000 birds) though nothing of particular note.
Despite the floods being mostly frozen over this morning there was lots of bird life around: at least 26 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS present still together with 12 RUFF and 4 DUNLIN. The birds were rather flighty and the ruff and dunlin ended up on the grass between the track (from Walton Well Rd to Aristotle Lane) and the railway. This area is not usually frequented by birds so was rather unusual though I suspect that it's merely until the floods thaw out enough for them to resume feeding. There were at least 100 GOLDEN PLOVER some of which were calling rather plaintively in a manner befitting of the dark and gloomy conditions. All the usual ducks were present and a single SNIPE flew over. There was a COMMON GULL standing around on the ice with the black-headeds.
Late afternoon update: In addition to this morning's birds, at least 4 REDSHANKS around, a few feeding SNIPE, now 7 DUNLIN but only a few RUFF left. A good gull roost tonight (perhaps 1000 birds) though nothing of particular note.