First Wetland Birds Survey (WeBS) of the year today, and (the one advantage of it being dark for much of the morning) at the very civilised start time of 7.30am (much better than the 5.30am starts back in September). Andrew and myself were in prime position at the count point behind Tower Pool Hide, and from first light, the geese continually lifted in waves off the loch and the low ground and poured over our heads. Thankfully most of them went along the Savoch Burn and on Andrew's side of the car but I counted several flocks over a thousand leaving the reserve.
Top counting position
When we got back to the office and added up our totals, along with another 1000 or so from the other count points we were left with a grand total of 31,676. This is easily the highest count of the season and continues last year's trend of the highest goose numbers for Strathbeg coming in the spring rather than the autumn. Why this has changed from previous years we don't really know. It could be down to weather conditions, feeding conditions in the area or simply a change of habit in individual geese. It'll be interesting to look at the other local and Scottish counts for this week and see where our extra 15,000 or so birds have come from.
Easily distracted by Corn Buntings...
As well as all the geese we had great views of at least 7 Corn Bunting on the wires, Vicky had two Water Rail calling in front of Tower Pool Hide and there was the first Great Crested Grebe of the year on the loch. Duck numbers were a little low but given all the wet weather recently there are big groups of ducks (including 100s of Wigeon and Teal) simply living on flooded patches in the surrounding fields rather than roosting on the loch. There are still plenty of sea ducks to be seen both offshore and on the reserve, with two Red Breasted Mergansers on the pools outside the visitor centre and lots of Eider and Long-tailed Duck offshore. The King Eider was still off St Combs on Friday as well.
After a long morning wildfowl counting and eating bacon sandwiches, Andrew and I then treated ourselves to a quick but very cold trip to Peterhead Harbour- Andrew to find a Glaucous Gull and me to chat with some of the local birders and get distracted by the huge Grey Seals that come looking for fish when the boats come in (picture below was taken by Tom on our gull-watching course last year).
Weather permitting I'm now off for a while, spending eight days in the Gambia with the Rutland Osprey Project looking for wintering ospreys. Last year we found a bird that had been ringed in the Ythan valley, just a few miles away from Strathbeg so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another local bird this time. You can find out a bit more about the project at www.ospreys.org.uk and I'll let you know what we found when I get back.
that's a lot of geese!!! nice to see Andrew was kept busy.....
Have fun in the Gambia, see you when you get back!