A lot of birds such as Teal, Golden Plover, Snipe and even Grey Plover displaced by the snow into pastures. High numbers of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes.
Off Cliff End, 318 GC Grebes, 134 RT Divers and 1 BT Diver. 142 dark-bellied Brents near Toot Rock and 3 probable light-bellied Brents with Greylags.
At the Pools, 6 Bearded Tits. 4 Goosanders flew in but vanished. When I checked the RMC/Brede confluence there was a different group of 5.
More details on my blog.
a frozen quarry
The freezing weather continues with extensive covering of snow from Sunday, but there is till some open water and the higher tides are now defrosting much of the old and new saltmarshes. I found a freshly dead Redshank today beside a ditch at Castle Water, no marks on it and still felt warm, but very, very thin with a sharp breast bone (= little flight muscle left). It weighed just 80 grams whereas the BTO range is 115-195g.
Survival of the fittest.
Tomorrow’s forecast looks a bit warmer…
Highlights from the Beach Reserve and Harbour Farm over the last few days have included 70 Skylark and 45 Meadow Pipit scratching a living around the thawed areas of Harbour Farm. The unfrozen ditches have also provided feeding and roosting opportunities for Spotted Redshank, Green Sandpiper, Kingfisher and several Pintail. Elsewhere a Merlin and Peregrine gave great views in the winter sunshine and snow around Ternery Pool, two Stonechat were also present there amongst the bramble scrub. At least 800 Golden Plover and 55 Curlew have roosted on the new saltmarsh area and Flat Beach. (Also of note two Firecrest were again in the scrubby area along the footpath north of the viewpoint).
I’m delighted to say that we have been able to re-open the reserve today although there is still limited access to parts of the trail and there is no vehicle access to Denge Marsh hide.
Seven goosanders and a drake smew were seen from Dennis’s hide first thing and there are good numbers of other ducks on Burrowes pit - enough to attract the attentions of a hungry marsh harrier.
In a walk from Cliff End to Castle Water yesterday we found 84 bird species including Brent & Whitefronted (but no Pinkfooted) Geese, 2 Bitterns, Woodcock, Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Goldeneye, Pintail, Water Rail, Marsh Harrier, Med Gull and Bearded Tit.
Large numbers of Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and Redwings were arriving at Toot Rock as the mist cleared and, as mentioned in yesterday’s post, Dunlin were widely distributed as well as Snipe.
See more here
There has been little improvement in the condition of the entrance track and trails so, unfortunately, the reserve will remain closed today.
About 40 Bewick’s swans came off the ARC pit at about 9.15, heading towards Lydd.
Before Sunday’s snow I saw a flock of dunlin feeding on the old shingle ridges around Camber Castle - I’ve not seen that before. And yesterday Laurie Piper took this photo of dunlin feeding on the road at Pett Level. All signs of these shore birds struggling to find enough food in their usual habitats…
The weather led to me birdwatch through the back door today. The snow brought good number of the regulars into my small Peasmarsh garden searching desperately for food. Then there were some not so regular visitors. There were about six Redwings feeding most all day on the cotoniasta and pyracantha berries. There was even a female Reed Bunting which I have only seen once or twice before in the garden but then there was this splendid male Blackcap.
Apologies but due to the heavy snowfall and dangerous conditions on the entrance track and trails the reserve is closed today. Not that I imagine anyone was thinking of visiting today!
Bewick’s swans roosted on the ARC pit last night - can’t say how many because I could only hear them…
As elsewhere the cold conditions have mixed things up a bit, mainly at Castle Water where the frozen margins, smaller water bodies and ditches have concentrated good numbers of wildfowl onto the open water of the main pit. This morning at least 900 Wigeon, 400 Teal, 135 Shoveler and 200 Gadwall were present. Woodcock have also been more conspicuous in recent days with three birds this morning still out in open ground at day break with one narrowly escaping from one of four hunting Marsh Harrier. Several Woodcock were also present/flushed along the footpaths on the Beach Reserve Yesterday. Additional highlights from a day break walk around Castle Water included 3 Bittern (two from the hide and one inflight from the viewpoint), 4 Smew (including one drake), 39 Snipe, 38 Dunlin were unusual out from the hide , 7 White-fronted Geese, Barn Owl and 2 Firecrest.
