Water Feature

Yet another excellent morning at Connah’s Quay before high tide - the star bird being a very showy Water Pipit feeding with a flock of five Rock Pipits on the edge of the stream in front of the west hide.

It is by no means easy separating these two species - especially when the Scandinavian race of Rock Pipit comes into the equation. Fortunately, the elevation of the hide afforded good views of the bird’s tail and with all other features matching up, the clear white edges running down the feathers clinched the identity.

The pipits fed for a good ten minutes before they were spooked by a handful of alarmed Teal – alarmed because clumsy me had been as subtle as a bull in a china chop when trying to open another shutter!

Other highlights included spectacular views of fifteen hundred Black-tailed Godwits towering over hundreds of Dunlin and Knot busily weaving around their long legs, whilst the bunded pools played host to a couple of Spotted Redshanks, three Greenshanks and the resident Kingfisher.

A trip around the fringes of Burton Marsh with Stan in the afternoon paid dividends too as we enjoyed some extremely close views of hunting Short-eared Owls. Clearly the owls have to look to the perimeters of the marsh for food following the big tides as I have heard reports of birds quartering the paddocks behind the old baths at Parkgate, whilst Stan had noted two birds in the field at Denhall Lane.

As the rain steadily became more organised (to use the BBC weather term!), we were then treated to a classic end to a winter’s afternoon – a big flock of Pinkies flying directly over our heads and if my counting was up to scratch yesterday then there were four hundred and fifty nine of them!

Connah’s Quay NR 15.02.10

1,500 Black-tailed Godwit
800 Dunlin
400 Knot
400 Oystercatcher
3 Greenshank
2 Spotted Redshank
1 Kingfisher
1 Water Pipit
5 Rock Pipit

Until later.