Local Birding

On Saturday I spent the morning birding at Ginst Point. There was plenty of Birdlife but not a great deal of interest. A quick scan through a large gull flock produced 100+ Common Gulls, 20 Curlew and a large number of Oystercatchers were roosting alongside the flock. A highlight for me was the amount of Little Egrets. About 15 were feeding together on the salt marsh. A Wheatear on the path, 6 Sandwich Terns in the bay and a flock of 40+ Dunlin on the beach were the other highlights.

Monday evening I spent on my patch at Coed Marros. The evening started with a first-winter Spotted Flycather in a spruce tree. Goldcrests number were good, I saw very few but the trees were filled with their calls. There were large number of finches feeding on the spruce cones. 6 Chaffinches, 17 Goldfinch and 12 Siskins. But the highlight of the evening came when a small flock of 4 Crossbills flew into view, ( 1 Male, 1 Female, 2 Juveniles). 2  fly over Grey Wagtails were a good patch tick.

On Wednesday I went back up to Coed Marros. The usual birds were seen, I heard a Crossbill, there was plenty of Mipits, but the highlight was a Whinchat a patch tick and the first proper migrant of the autumn!!

Dunlin

Crossbills