Dee Estuary reserve Site Manager Colin here writes an account of his autumn excitement and bird counting exploits last month. As well as the usual suspects, it's been yet another brilliant month of surprises and broken records.
I always look forward to October. For me it means big tides and an opportunity to get some great counts of wildfowl on the reserve. In October last year we saw a record count of teal at Burton Mere Wetlands with a spectacular 8,000 covering the pools.
Counting birds is really important for their conservation; the data gathered is the main reason why the reserve and estuary are protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Protection Area (SPA). The BTO coordinated Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) is carried out once a month on a Sunday, another great means of understanding birds’ movements and preferred locations.
Sometimes the biggest tides don’t occur on the designated WeBS dates and additional counts carried out on the bigger tides of the month offer more significant numbers. October 16 was last month’s WeBS count when precisely that happened at Parkgate; the tide just hit the edge of the marsh and frustratingly I knew that there were a lot more birds out there than I could actually see. Having said that, the light conditions were pretty good and using my telescope’s zoom I did manage some good counts. 10 great crested grebe, 3,000 shelduck, 1,000 pintail and 15 red breasted merganser being the best of the bunch, so I looked forward to the next few days with bigger tides predicted and calm conditions.
On Monday morning, myself and AI the warden, got out early for first light to carry out a coordinated count of the little egrets leaving their roost sites. Al positioned himself at Burton Point and I was opposite Denhall fishery. In total we counted 315 little egrets and to our amazement, 8 great white egrets flying from the Marsh Covert roost which is a record for the estuary. Later on in the day I tried to do a high tide count off Burton Point but again the conditions were not brilliant for wildfowl, however I did see 7 great white egrets.
The following day I hit the jackpot; getting out early at Burton Mere Wetlands, I counted 5,200 teal and a stunning 1,300 pintail gracing the pools. On returning to the Reception Hide, a volunteer announced that he had just seen five cattle egrets roosting on Burton Mere, to which I was gob smacked!
Five cattle egrets at Burton Mere Wetlands (A. Lovatt)
Sure enough we managed to see four with the cattle and later on the fifth turned up; cue lots of happy staff, volunteers and visitors. After the early morning excitement I did to go to Parkgate to try and improve on my previous count. I set up by Mostyn House to avoid the crowds as you require total concentration when counting large numbers of birds!
This time I struck lucky and could see large numbers of pintail occasionally lifting in the area off the Boathouse gutter about 2 km out from the promenade, and started flighting south towards the Denhall Gutter. This is the best time to count as they fly past, counting in blocks of hundreds. At the end of one hour I had counted 5,000, an excellent count for the estuary and one that will maintain the Dee as the top wetland site in the UK for pintail!
I apologise to all the people who ask me questions whilst I’m counting and I appear to be rude, it’s just sometimes you only get that one opportunity for the big count! Back at Burton Mere Wetlands on October 19, I counted 7,500 teal, but just could not get over the magical 8,000. I’ll try again on the November tides.
Since the re-colonisation of the Dee by pink-footed geese, the reserve team participate in the national autumn grey goose roost count coordinated by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust. Last winter record numbers of pink-feet were counted on the Dee (8,200) and in the UK as a whole. Again it’s an early start, getting down to the two main roost sites at Burton Mere Wetlands and Parkgate at dawn. The previous week, Al had already had 2,820 roosting at Burton Mere Wetlands. The weekend of the count the pink’s had decided to split roost sites but 2,400 were still counted. For me, the return of the pink-feet to the Dee has to be one of the conservation highlights on the reserve.
Pink-footed geese (A. Lovatt)
It’s not just wildfowl and wading birds that the team count. For over 35 years hen harriers have roosted on the saltmarsh off the Parkgate Old Baths. The BTO and Hawk & Owl Trust coordinate the national roost site survey. So once a month during the winter, volunteers and staff count the hen harriers coming into roost. As I’m sure you’re probably aware, on its breeding grounds the hen harrier is one of the most persecuted birds of prey in England, so it is really important that their roost sites are counted.
So far this autumn, three birds have been roosting off Parkgate, two ringtails and one stunning grey male. In addition, marsh harriers are continuing to increase and this autumn we have record numbers roosting in the rush beds between Neston Old Quay & Neston reedbed. This was reported to the reserve team by two regular birders. On 22nd I was down at Denhall Quay and counted 6 pos 7 going into roost. The following evening I went to Neston Old Quay and had similar numbers. This location gave much better views, with up to four birds swirling around at a time. Imagine my surprise when Al text me on Sunday to say that he had 10 going into roost. Wow how times change, these magnificent raptors were much rarer on the estuary a decade ago.
Ringtail hen harrier at Burton Mere Wetlands (A. Lovatt)
Well after a terrific month of bird counts, October went out with a bang. During the morning of October 30 I had a text to say six great white egrets were showing well on Burton Marsh off Denhall. I went down late afternoon and counted eight on the marsh, and later another two flew into join them, yet another record count for the Dee! They then flew over Burton Point to roost at Burton Mere Wetlands. The following day the record was broken by volunteer David King who photographed 12 on Burton Marsh from Burton Point. The big question now is, will they stay and breed next year?
Great white egret flock on Burton Marsh (D. King)