Late November

The second half of the month started with floods and ended with the first frosts, typical for November.

Whooper Swans were present in good numbers with a lovely herd of 102 present on roadside floods near Calvo on the 30/11 and good numbers at Beaumont throughout with a maximum count there of 185 on the 23/11.

The long billed Dowitcher remained at Port carlisle harbour on the 16 and 17/11 and was reported again on the afternoons of the 23/11 and 27/11 though typically there was no sign of it on the morning of the 23/11 when I went for another look.

Up to 2 Little egrets were present intermittently throughout the fortnight in Port Carlisle harbour and the Spotted Redshank was present until the 20/11/09 but not subsequently.
Twite also put in a good show with 40 in the harbour on the 23/11 and counts of 50+ and 25 near Anthorn Masts. While on a walk along Grune Point on the 30/11/09 a big flock of 140+ twite flew from the saltmarsh over the point and back again.

Also on Grune point on the 30/11/09 I found a lovely little Snow Bunting right at the end in the same place as the previous two years, also present on the marsh were a Peregrine and huge flocks of knot and Bar Tailed Godwit with 8 Scaup in the channel east of the point.

At North Plain hide up to 3 Hen Harriers including 2 males were reported some days while a count of 114 Shoveler on the 23/11 was high and up to 90 Whooper Swans roosted each evening. 2 Little Egrets also dropped in briefly on the first pool on the 30/11 before flying out towards the saltmarsh

Huge numbers of fieldfares gathered on the Hawthorn bushes on Burgh Marsh edge with at least 750 there on the 30/11/09.

With Carr Beds still under a lot of flood water the only decent sightings from the area were 103 Goldeneye on the river at Rockliffe and opposite Redhills Farm on the Beaumont side 3 Jack Snipe were flushed from the reeds with c20 Snipe.