Wednesday 23 October 2019

Make Egrets Great Again

My old friend the Great White Egret is back for its fifth winter. Assuming of course it's the same one. Surely it would be even crazier if it were different birds. Hopefully it will play ball a bit more this time - I only saw it once last winter.

An autumnal feel at the weekend. Lots of birds about but nothing particularly unexpected. Hightlights were the Great White Egret, four Green Sandpipers probably settling in for winter, a whopping record count of 600 Herring Gulls, and five each of Grey Wagtail and Jay.

Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th October

Mute Swan - 6
Greylag Goose - 60+
Wigeon - 35
Gadwall - 1
Teal - 160+
Mallard - 120+
Red-legged Partridge - 6
Cormorant - 5
Great White Egret - 1 at Kelk Beck
Little Egret - 4 (3 Kelk, 1 Wansford)
Heron - 5
Sparrowhawk - 5
Buzzard - 18
Kestrel - 8
Golden Plover - 400+ nr Gembling
Lapwing - 80
Green Sandpiper - 4
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2
Herring Gull - 600, a record count
Great Black-backed Gull - 3
Collared Dove - 23 at Gembling
Tawny Owl - 2
Kingfisher - 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 2
Skylark - flock of 25 at Kelk Beck
Meadow Pipit - 2
Grey Wagtail - 5
Redwing - 31, but no Fieldfares
Mistle Thrush - 25 incl 19 together at Gembling
Goldcrest - 2 at Kelk were presumably migrants
Treecreeper - 1
Jay - 5
Jackdaw - 1000+ at pre-roost
Rook - 1000+ at pre-roost
Linnet - 170 in two flocks of 80+90
Bullfinch - 4
Yellowhammer - flock of 23


Part of the 2000-plus Corvid pre-roost at Kelk. It was about 50/50 Jackdaws and Rook from what I could tell. The roost could still climb to 3k by winter though I would expect most of the increase to be Rooks.















The drain at Gembling has breached and created this flood, plus a similar size patch behind me in a winter corn field. Could be interesting for birds over winter and into spring!















All three of the common gulls; Herring, Black-headed and Common Gull. There was an exceptional number of Herring Gulls in the area over the weekend - a record count of 600 - outnumbering the other species.















A heron flying over.















Ropey photo but I'm just pleased to see a Kingfisher sat still for a change. Incredibly this is the first one I've seen along the beck all year.















Two new for the year...

104 Treecreeper
105 Great White Egret

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