Saturday 22 January 2022

Cafe corner Brents turn out to be the regulars

Light west wind, overcast all day.

I didn't have much time today and so far only my records, hopefully more to come (MD).

Half Moon Bay cafe area
Pale-bellied Brent geese 48 - 12:00 they had made their way to the gut weed in the corner just below the sea wall beside the cafe. They included the two red/blue ringed Canadian Arctic birds, so my speculation yesterday that they may be unfamiliar with the area was not correct. You can hear a dog barking in this clip, but the dog walkers were very considerate and kept a good distance from the geese. It was also nice to see other observers enjoying the Brent.

There are 46 Brent on this shot

At 12:07 they flew off along the north sea wall, presumably heading for Red Nab. I don't think they were spooked by anything, although a Herring gull was becoming quite vocal. Assuming a reasonably undisturbed area again tomorrow, there is no reason not to expect an encore.

Rock Pipit 1

Middleton Nature Reserve 
I just stopped off in passing early evening.
Gadwall 35
Wigeon 2 (pair)
Mallard 10
Tufted Duck 1 male
Shoveler 2 (pair)
No Coot seen

I took these clips near the "no swimming" pond a couple of days ago in the late afternoon light. There was both a male and a female Bullfinch stripping the buds of this tree. They were both moving around quite quickly, which appears counter intuitive from the bird's prospective as there seems to be plenty of buds easily within reach. But this behaviour would benefit the tree, as loosing a few buds from each twig will have less impact than loosing them all from a number of twigs.
First up the female

and the male
I know that I have mentioned this before but, people with one type of colour blindness (I can't remember which one) cannot differentiate between a male and female Bullfinch - both look like a female looks to people with standard vision. 

Jackdaw c150 milling around, but I had to leave 15 minutes earlier than I did yesterday.

Just out of the recording area:
The Sandylands Black Redstart was seen again today.