Piltanton Burn estuary – 14.i.25

 There was another very high tide today for the January WeBS count following last night’s full moon. As in December, most waterbirds were either at the flooded saltmarsh on the far side of the main channel or in the nearside pasture field. No chance at all of anything much on the nearside shore with dogs running out of control and their owners shouting at them. Apart, that is, from several Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits who paid little heed to the anthropic disturbance, too busy chasing flies among heaps of seaweed on the upper beach. A quartet of Stonechats flitting about the dunes also seemed unfazed. I wonder if they are the same family party that bred here in the summer or maybe winter visitors from elsewhere.

Shelduck were again the most numerous of the wildfowl, although down considerably from 204 last month to 136. Dabbling duck numbers were similar to last time: Mallard 13 and Wigeon 20, but no Teal spotted. Diving ducks were again represented by a couple of Goldeneye and a few Red-breasted Merganser plus, on this occasion, a sizeable flock of 66 Common Scoter riding the swell out on Luce Bay. Historically, flocks of the latter were seen here in several hundreds I believe. My personal highlight was a small group of 8 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, my first for the site. With flocks not too far away at Loch Ryan and Garlieston, they were not a great surprise. But they have a special place in my affections from my earliest birding days at Dublin Bay in Ireland where a thousand or so used to winter back then in the 1970s. Apparently numbers there reach 7000 or more nowadays, which is very encouraging.

On the wader front, Oystercatcher had the highest count of 86, almost double last month’s tally. Curlew however were almost halved from 44 to 28. Redshank seemed to be absent today but Lapwing were up from just 4 to 51. Once more a small flock of Bar-tailed Godwits roosted on the saltmarsh, 16 noted this time, up from 9.

The commonest gull was Herring at 104, with Common at 44, Black-headed 24 and just a single Great Black-back. Four Little Egrets, a Little Grebe and a Red-throated Diver completed the list of waterbirds.

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