John and John’s Sightings – end of December

A few visits over December and the reserve was stacked out!  Thousands of Wildfowl , many thousands of Wigeon and Teal either on the reserve or close by on the Swale, 500 + Mallard also hundreds of Shelduck, Gadwall , Pintail  20 +,  Sholver standing out amongst the Wigeon and Teal.

Waders galore 4,000 Golden Plover, 500 + Grey Plover, Curlew 1500 +, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwits in the thousands,100+ Turnstone and Coot, 50 Redshank, Lapwing throughout the reserve, Knot increasing, Snipe and Bearded Tit 12+, Green Sandpiper .

Lovely group of 50+ Skylark, Meadow Pipit and Reed Buntings in close proximity feeding, at least 8 pair of Stonechats. 800 Dark-bellied Brent Goose, up to 23 Barnacle Goose.

Double figures of Fieldfare, Goldfinch, Oystercatcher, Little Egret, Mute Swan, Marsh harriers close to double numbers, 6 Buzzards and Kestrel, also Short-eared and Barn Owls, and one Cetti’s warbler, apologies’ to the ones that I have missed but my pencil is going blunt !.

Please click the images below for some of the Johns’ wonderful photos of the huge numbers of waders and wildfowl:

And for more of the Johns brilliant photos, please see their Flickr links:

Its been another good month: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk6HqSZy

Also caught a Merlin and Passerine chase which: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7nFpKZ