26,208 Pink-footed Geese, 61 Whooper Swan, 1 White-tailed Eagle, 1 Golden Wellie and more!
Picture of just a few geese taken on this morning's dawn goose count- how many do you make it! (DS)
The more is that the Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Pectoral Sandpipers are still here! There is a general consensus that one of the Buff-breasted Sandpipers that was here at the weekend has now gone but one remains. I went out to put the camera on the Low Ground earlier and flushed what could have been 4 Pectoral Sandpipers.
ALSO, a Bean Goose and a White-fronted Goose have been seen this week already!
The BIG news stories of the week though are that we are just under the highest count of last winter's Pink-footed Geese already, and our favourite White-tailed Eagle ‘Red A’ or Arran has returned and has been on the Low Ground for the past two days!
In case anyone is wondering where he gets the name Arran, you can find out by purchasing the book entitled ‘Eagle Antics, Tales from Scotland’s White-tailed Eagles’ from the Loch of Strathbeg Visitor Centre, priced £8.
Also back are the Whooper Swans. I was waiting until we had more than 3 to say they had returned as we’d had 3 summering here but seeing as we counted 61 earlier it’s pretty safe to say they’re back!
4 Redwing were seen this week by our new volunteer James.
The 2 Brent Geese, which may have been the ones that I saw flying south on Sunday, have now moved on.
The last bit of news is that Loch of Strathbeg has won a Golden Wellie in the inaugural Love Passage Waders awards at the annual RSPB Wardens Gathering in Pitlochry. The award was for ‘Best Wader of the Year’ for the Greater Yellowlegs which was here for about 3 months earlier this year.
That’s it for this week but just to say that there are strong easterlies forecast for the beginning of next week so keep a look out for rarities!
Birds for the week are: Pink-footed Goose 26,208, Bean Goose 1, White-fronted Goose 1, Whooper Swan 61, Mute Swan, Buff-breasted Sandpiper 1, Pectoral Sandpiper 4, Lapwing, Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit 3, Redwing 4, Wheatear.