WWT Slimbridge sightings 21 January 2007

Female Stonechat in the Ox Piece M.J.McGill

A bird's eye view of the 50 Acre floods. Around 5,000 birds were present here today.

21 January 2007 We managed to count most of the reserve but still had a few outstanding species to cover tommorow. We logged 176 Bewick's Swans, 400 E. White-fronted Geese, 1,000 Pintail, 5800 Lapwing, 4800 Wigeon, 2200 Golden Plover, 1000 Dunlin, 834 Pochard to name a few. 3 Spotted Redshank, 20 Ruff, 36 Redshank, 760 Curlew, Jack Snipe, 1 Little Stint, 1 Knot, 3 Tundra Bean Geese, 3 Stonechat, Rock Pipit, Bittern and a pale first-winter Glaucous Gull (not the previous bird), 2 Great Skua and 15 Raven were all around the sheep carcass on the Dumbles. The real surprise was a flock of 843 Fieldfare with 100 Redwing and 1000 Starling feeding in the fields. 7000 Starling roosted near the Holden Tower. Otherwise a very poor passerine roundup of 7 Meadow Pipit and 2 Linnet around the whole northern half of the reserve. Common finches are also very scarce this year with low numbers at feeding stations.