A windy 6 hrs watching Ramsey Sound

As part of a weekly input to the Ramsey Sound "tidal energy project", it is always interesting to see what flies through the sound. Today numbers of birds were quite small but, despite the cold blustery conditions, we were delighted to see 2 adult med gulls (flying north through the Sound this morning) plus a small mostly northerly passage of kittiwakes. There have been one or two med gulls in the area during the last few weekly visits and they have been seen fairly often in previous years. No divers were noted today and only a single scoter this morning. Annie though, doing the afternoon shift, had the days highlight; a fine sabines gull heading south through the centre of the Sound - a first for her at this location in three years of more or less weekly-watching. Porpoises also put in a typical appearance - those seen today were heading north.

Last Sunday (WeBs) noted that there were more wigeon and teal around in the Carew/Cresswell estuary than this time last year - around 600+ and c. 500+ respectively. Four pintails were nice to see as was an unexpected female merganser on Carew Millpond - they have become quite scarce in the Carew/Cresswell complex of late. Numbers of little egret were quite low compared with usual typical counts in recent late autumns. A single merlin was chasing finches etc near Lawrenny along the shore.