Migration has as good as stopped at Pennington Flash, at least for the time being. The Temminck's stint from Monday was still present up to yesterday evening, but that now seems to have moved on and the flash seems very quiet. Still a few sightings to brighten up the day though, we haven't quite reached the return of the Egyptian goose levels yet.
Two common sandpipers were on the spit early morning to excite the small crowd of birders hoping that the stint was still present, while at least three, possibly as many as five pairs of garden warblers are singing and occasionally showing well.
Highlight for me though was a magnificent male great black-backed gull which for the past couple of days has been feeding on something just off the ruck. Look at the size of the bill on that bird! I'm not sure if the status of great black-back has changed at the flash, but in his book "Birds and Birdwatching at Pennington Flash" published in 1985, Dave Wilson comments "Great black-backed gulls are strictly winter visitors to the flash....." and "Recent early and late dates are 13th October 1983 and 14th March 1982". Whilst it my be generally true that they are still commonest in winter, I have records of the species from all months, including a family party of adult and two juveniles in June last year.
No comments:
Post a Comment