This evening a male Pintail was on the Slurry Lagoon, plus a Great White Egret. About 1,250 Starlings came in to roost in the reed-bed. JDn.
Five whooper Swans flew over the site and a Barn Owl was hunting. Noctule and Pipistrelle are still active. RW
There were five Red-crested Pochard on the Large Gravel Pit this afternoon. In the evening the Starlings, Geese and Crows put on a spectacle with thousands of birds coming in to roost or passing over on their way to their roost sites. The roosts attracted the usual raptors with Peregrine, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard putting in an appearance and a Jack snipe was briefly seen. PS.
A single Egyptian Goose flew onto the Slurry Lagoon late afternoon with the Canadas and Greylags. A Little Egret was spotted but no further sightings of the Great White. The Starling roost was again impressive with wave after wave of birds decending into the Slurry reed bed – hard to assess numbers but perhaps between 7 and 8,000 birds in total. JMD RW.
An evening walk around the Lagoons, dodging the showers, produced a sighting of eight Red-crested Pochard on the Slurry Lagoon – five obvious males, one female and two extremely creamy/white individuals. A small flock of about 70 Starlings were flying over the reed bed looking for somewhere to roost for the night and three Lapwing chicks were feeding between the showers. JMD.
A Little Egret was on the Slurry Lagoon late afternoon but flew away after unsuccessfully trying to see the Lapwings off. The male Pintail is still present and he seems to commute between the Large Gravel Pit and the Slurry Lagoon. The Starling roost was spectactular again with thousands of birds gathering on two particular pylons before coming in waves to roost in the Slurry reed bed. JMD.
A male Merlin was seen today coming from the Railway Land and accelerating into the Deep Pit, its wings whirring round like propellers. The fields where the sweet corn has recently been harvested were covered with birds and flocks of geese, ducks, crows and starlings were filling the air above them. A Peregrine sliced through this spectacle and flew up to its favoured perch on one of the pylons. On the Slurry Lagoon the roost of “large gulls” had increased significantly in size. PS.
Somewhere in the region of 2,500 – 3,000 starlings flew in to roost at the Lagoons this evening. It is difficult to be more accurate with numbers as birds were constantly moving and being joined by more. A Sparrowhawk was attracted to all this activity but didn’t manage to get lucky. At one point a huge flock flew along the Causeway settling everywhere, bushes, fences, in the grass and on the path itself – quite a sight. Eventually they all flew into the reeds to the right of the seat to roost for the night. JMD.
A Jack Snipe was creeping along the edge of the left-hand reeds on the Slurry Lagoon feeding and seven Common Snipe and a single Dunlin were over towards the right-hand reed bed. Large numbers of Starlings again came in to roost – difficult to be accurate but probably eventually over 3,000 birds. JMD.