The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Hi

A full survey of the saltmarsh this morning produced the following highlights:

Snow Bunting - 10
Twite - 45
Rock Pipit - 256 (all presumed to be littoralis)
Short-eared Owl - 1
Merlin - 1

Afternoon on the scrapes and reedbed:

Lapland Bunting - 3
Snow Bunting - 1

Possibly the highest count of Rock Pipits from any single site in the UK I would guess?

I guess it could be, and don't forget that the RSPB section of the marsh is only approx 1/2 of the "Frampton Marsh" section, and then there are the Holbeach-Terrington sections and the stretches further north towards Gib to consider. Could be upwards of 1000 in The Wash as a whole.

It would be interesting to survey all of the saltmarshes at Gib and see what the wintering Rock pipit amounts to. Maybe sites and their managment regimes can be compared by calculating a figure of no of wintering birds/ per acre and extrapolating that for the larger area.

There was a comprehensive winter saltmarsh survey carried out along the N Norfolk coast some time ago - Can't remember where I read that - but pipit numbers were covered - I recall there was a greater number of meadow pipits reported than we would expect for our winter saltmasrh population here.

Some very photogenic rock pipits just out from the car park at Stonebridge, Donna Nook in the mid morning light today.

Kev

Sorry to add on my bit late, but there was a nice Whooper Swan on the Reedbed with 2 drk Pintails on freshwater scrapes and 2 Twite amongst c50 Linnet on the wet grassland. Stonechat along the path from VC to hide. Barn Owl having hassle from a Kestrel, and a small raptor on a post! 40 Pink-footed Geese over about 1600 hrs heading NW.

Went to try and find the 1 Snow and 3 Laplands but failed to find them before the light went.

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JH Birding
http://jhbirding.blogspot.com