WOW continues to be a pleasure to be at, despite missing out on the Baird's sandpiper. Last week saw reed cutting taking place but I still managed 4 new species plus a
little stint this week. The highlights were
kingfisher, little egret,meadow pipit and scaup plus good numbers of ducks and waders drifting in for the winter. There are no shelduck yet and in three visits in eight days I have seen
common terns with 12 present today.
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| Serious reed cutting machine |
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This machine and a low tide meant we were not expecting much but we still logged 30+ species and four new ticks for the 2016 patch at WOW.
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| Poser |
Castle Espie on a rising tide provided another
kingfisher, 14 grey plover and 4 little egrets plus a
buzzard in a pine tree right outside the cafe. Thre are good numbers of
brent geese on the lough with a handful of
shelduck. No sign of the whooper swans yet, too early and too warm.
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| Brent geese |
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| Kingfisher (on the branch!!) |
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| Distant grey plover |
Off to London for a long weekend and a long overdue "final" visit to Barnes, Rainham and Kensington Gardens. A chance to say farewell to sites I have had the pleasure of visiting over the last eight years when I was travelling to London regularly. Hopefully I will get the odd weekend in London, maybe once a year rather than every 8 weeks. I will update next week and see what totals I have managed on my travels.
WOW patch list:
91 Kingfisher
92 Little egret
93 Meadow pipit
94 Scaup
95 Little stint
West Bangor patch list:
67 Manx shearwater
2016 list
183 Scaup
184 Grey plover
185 Little stint
