geese galor

27/08/09

slimbridge

a spur of the moment trip,very last minuite.but worth it.on the motorway i was staring out the window and saw a large deer,it had short horns if it helps,any ideas what it is,

it turned out we screwed the tides up massivly and the tide was way out and the birds were literaly miles away(from the holden tower anyway).we had a steady stroll through the 'plastics' taking a few photos along the way,by the way my favorites are wood duck and ringed teal,im pritty sure there are more flamingos here than in spain.i heard reports of a redstart in the spinny(the wood around the ziess hide) but we didnt see it, the distance between the zeiss hide and the lake there was huge

,but managable,to the left of the hide(quite far away)i saw a flock of geese,greylag maybe,no they wernt a stunning flock of exacly 110 barnicle geese(lifer 191,reasons for counting them are set out in the comments section of 28/08/09),they were a bit far for dodgyscoping so i didnt try,a few plovers were out in curved area(look in middle of previous pic),on getting my scope onto them they were ringed plover,after a bit we both counted 5,and around these along the edges of the water,were 3 greenshank(year tick) with their perculiar leaning forward gaint,by the size and what seemed suitable habotat i was bemused but the fact that there was only 3 lapwing.my dad came over to say he just saw 2 yellow wagtails around the hay circle things,but after he told me where they were i couldent pick them up,for 5 mins i couldent see them but then suddenly one burst into my field of view(through scope),then landed and dissapeared again in some long grass.i scoped this grass untill it came out and followed it to a bare area of ground,where there was another 4 yellow wagtails feeding,overall there was 5 from the zeiss hide and 3 wheatear fedding there too.the barnicles took flight and shown imaculate wings flying onto the dumbles.not long after we left and headed for the holden tower.

for some reason we scipped the south lake,this seems the best idea when visiting there,but we missed it,bet all the good stuff was there.

in the tower we found out we had made a big mistake,the birds were out on the mudflats of the river.they were miles out.i put my scope on the river and got 2 little egrets standing side by side,200c small waders were put down as dunlin,but i knew that there was knot in there ad maybe a few scarcer waders(in my terms that means barwit,turnstone,grey plover,esturine waders i need to tick really).its just they were so far out i couldent tell,i picked up one bird i would swear was a knot(by structure) but as i wasen certain i didnt get the news out and im not ticking it,well not untill i see one i can id anyway.after seeing 2 ravern on the dumbles we decided to leave but visited the stephen kirk hide where 10 black tailed godwits were showing very,very,very close to the hide,got some amazing footage of them:

highlights of the day are:

2 little egret

110 barnicle geese

1 OYC(heard)

5 ringed plover

3 lapwing

200c dunlin

1 green sand

3 greenshank

13 b t godwit(10 from sk hide,3 in rushy pen)

30c curlew

3 common tern

5 yellow wagtails

9 wheatear

2 raven

20c linnets

i will end the post with all sorts of pics of plastic stuff

MB

im a bit pissed 2nite,a montys harrier has turned up just up the road from my dads at caunsall,i travel along the road next to it every friday and sunday and it decides to show mid weeks when i can't get it,i cant miss 2 in a row can i after the upton bird.if it sticks around untill friday i WILL be there.......