WeBS, Raven & Fieldfare

This morning was another session in the on-going monthly survey called WeBS. First up was Stithians, a visit to the North end gave a few things but not much, the Southern end producing the most wildlife.

Numbers of Grey Heron are still good, Little Grebe numbers are exceptional, waders were represented by Snipe, Lapwing and Dunlin. A few ducks around but to be honest the best sightings were on dry land - a flock of 9 Long-tailed Tit, my first for probably 6 months and a newly arrived winter migrant - Fieldfare. The Fieldfare is my earliest ever record beating my previous best by 8 days.

Over to Pendarves Lake and an escort was provided from the lane to the lake as 4 Raven in the trees called out, flew around calling before landing again, repeating this many times over much to the annoyance of a couple of Carrion Crow. Plenty of Tit activity with Blue's, Great's, Coal and Long-tailed's all being seen. Very little on the lake though as expected.

Sightings for the day -

Stithians -

1. Little Grebe 23
2. Teal 42
3. Cormorant 10
4. Grey Heron 10
5. Coot 44
6. Herring Gull 72
7. Moorhen 5
8. Mallard 44
9. Little Egret 2
10. Magpie 3
11. Carrion Crow 1
12. Starling 2
13. Black-headed Gull 22
14. Lapwing 3
15. Snipe 4
16. Dunlin 1
17. Tufted Duck 10
18. Wigeon 18
19. Robin 6
20. Blackbird 3
21. Long-tailed Tit 9
22. Dunnock 2
23. Pied Wagtail 1
24. Meadow Pipit 10
25. Wren 2
26. Wood Pigeon 1
27. Chaffinch 2
28. Skylark 1
29. Raven 1
30. Buzzard 1
31. Redwing 1
32. Fieldfare 1
33. Song Thrush 1
34. Canada Goose 22
35. Common Sandpiper 1

Pendarves Lake -

1. Robin 1
2. Coal Tit 2+
3. Great Tit 2+
4. Raven 4
5. Carrion Crow 2
6. Blackbird 2
7. Wren 2
8. Buzzard 1
9. Moorhen 5
10. Mallard 2
11. Little Grebe 4
12. Mute Swan 3
13. Blue Tit 1+
14. Long-tailed Tit 1+
15. Wood Pigeon 1
16. Jackdaw 1
17. Chaffinch 1

Here's a couple of images taken today but not on the WeBS counts - :-)






Tomorrow I have one  of those things we don't get enough of - a day off work although with redundancy on the horizon I'll soon be getting more than I expected. The day will be spent brushcutting at Stithians and getting the feeding station ready for opening at the end of the month.