The month started with the Snipe count at an amazingly dry Kenn Moor Reserve, it had been completely flooded seventeen days earlier. So just seven Snipe and a similar number of Meadow Pipits. A Barn Owl was seen late evening in Congresbury and a Red Kite was over Hewish on the 3rd. The cold weather brought small birds into the open, Wrens and Dunnocks were very visible in Wemberham Lane and a Kingfisher was in the same spot on the 3rd and 4th. Siskins were feeding in Alder trees by Nortons Reserve.
On the 5th, Lapwings were heading south towards warmer temperatures and unfrozen fields. I logged over 250 in two hours and there were a couple of Green Sandpipers on the Yeo at Wemberham. The 6th was another sunny day and Marsh Tits were particularly active on Cadbury Hill among with Nuthatch and Treecreepers. Lapwings were still in the area on the 9th with 100 recorded over the Little River. A couple of Teal were also hard weather migrants there. Also, a Kingfisher and another by Wemberham Lane.
More Siskins were in a Congresbury garden and two Tawny Owls hooted nearby. Three Goosanders were on the river upstream of Millennium Bridge. The Millennium Green hosted a Green Woodpecker and three Great Spots. Thirty Linnets, three Reed Buntings, a Blackcap and a Kingfisher were the best from Wemberham Lane on the 10th.
By the 22nd, there were reports of three Kingfishers on Wemberham Rhyne and there was a Peregrine on a T pylon. It was there for at least two hours in total and after a hunting trip it was busy feeding. Another pylon had three Cormorants, with their webbed feet they can perch easily on the pylons. The big Wemberham field attracted 42 Mute Swans and a couple of Little Egrets completed the scene.
A wardens morning out on the 23rd, ( John and myself) to the sea wall at Kingston Seymour produced the remarkable and wonderful spectacle of 9,000 Dunlin over the estuary. They were flying in murmuration style, then dividing and rejoining all in glorious winter sun. The following day, a dozen Siskins visited a garden in Congresbury and on the 28th a pair of Mistle Thrush was the highlight of Big Schools Birdwatch at St Andrews School, Congresbury.
Please send your sightings to [email protected]
