A cold Saturday tetrad bashing & a pleasant Sunday dusk at Bosherston Lakes

Yesterday we moved around approx 12 tetrads in SN11 and SN10 (between roughly Kilgetty, Tavernspite and Whitland) where there had been no roving records entered to the Atlas in winter so far. Most of the common expected species were found and so not too much of note really other than the fact that redwings were numerous in every 1 km square we checked - must be many thousands across the county as a whole. Song Thrushes were also very numerous -including greyer likely Continental ones, whiter on the belly and breast and lacking the warmer yellowish tinge of the typical UK ones.

Lapwings were thinly scattered over many fields in the area and there was a flock of around 30 golden plovers near Llanteg. A few snipe were flushed from roadside ditches (feeding in the damper less-frosted roadside zones). All the farm ponds/irrigation reservoirs and fishing lakes we looked at were frozen over so no waterfowl seen at all!

Today, at dusk, we checked out the goosander situation at Bosherston lakes and the corvid roost. Not less than 33 goosanders here (10 adult males and at least one immature male). They seem to come and go - 6 flew off at dusk. Where are they roosting/feeding when not at Bosherston? Coot numbers here are still quite low; no sign here yet of a cold weather influx - even though the lakes are now partially covered with a thin sheets of ice. Even so it still not as cold here as it was in the late 1970s/80s when the lakes were solid enough to walk on and starving golden plovers and lapwings were literally coming into the buildings here at Stackpole in search of food and more or less dying at your feet; redwings were also regularly seen falling dead out of the trees on to the frozen lake. Hopefully it won't get as bad as that!

The corvid roost was quite impressive this evening - around 2,000 - 2,500 jackdaws plus a few hundred rooks making their usual pre-roosting aerial displays over the lake before settling in the trees. A goshawk passed through the flock on its way to roost. Redwings and blackbirds were dropping into the holm oaks and laurel shrubbery all over the place. At least 200 redwings came in, in about 10 minutes and they could be seen arriving in small numbers all along the lake-side woodland. Only other notable birds being 2 little egrets roosting in trees and at least one firecrest - typically showing late in the day in trees near the Manor House garden.