We are away this weekend and our WebS counts in Carew/Cresswell and Daugleddau have been delayed until this morning.
Common waterfowl in the Carew/Cresswell section included lower numbers of wigeon and teal than last month (c.170 wigeon cf. 300 in October and c.120 teal cf. 190 in October). 75 shelduck were present which was an increase from the very low numbers in October.
It seems possible from the calls heard on the Carew River for the first time that a large flock of wild geese may have roosted there overnight, or perhaps just flown in. They include 95 Canada geese and 215 greylags.
This is the largest graylag total we have recorded in the Carew River to date while counting WeBS there.
52 oystercatchers are roosting in a favorite place, including orange “dull” 58 left leg ringed at Gann by Paddy Jenks and Michael Sherman in March 2018. This morning it was roosting just inches from where it was photographed roosting with other oystercatchers in January.
It was great to see a bar-tailed godwit accompanying them – this is one of the more unusual waders in the Carew/Cresswell system.
About 50+ Redshanks and 3 greenshanks were roosting in the expected usual areas, along with 110 curlew and c.150 lapwings but definitely few dunlin. there are around 30 at Daugleddau but none were seen at the usual roost sites on the Carew River today.
Many herons and little egrets are curled up in different parts of the coast and a great egret (probably the one reported last week) was feeding well in the Cresswell River this morning – telescope view only and too far away for a photo.
An immature man red-breasted merganser was feeding at Carew Millpond trying to avoid the path of large numbers of bathing gulls. The last time it was recorded in a WeBS count was 13 years ago in November 2011.
