Whoopers taking off from the hide wetlands.
Since Christmas here on the Solway, and by implication, our very own Campfield Marsh, the weather has been very wet and windy. But, surprisingly, in the last few days it has been calm and windless - really rather pleasant.
There has been a high tide series (now starting to go back) which tends to mean high water round about midday - always the best time for viewing on the marsh front of the Reserve. Wader and duck have been feeding vigorously on the incoming tide right up to the saltmarsh edge and then resting on the saltings in substantial numbers whilst waiting for the tide to fall - then again with a couple of hours of intensive feeding before failing light. The grey waders give spectacular displays of flying - thousands wheeling and turning in the afternoon sunlight: Dunlin and Plover making a very brave display whilst the more sedentary Oystercatcher and Curlew tend to group upon the edge of the salt marsh in their hundreds - wisely conserving their energy being bigger birds.
All this, much to the delight of the assembled birdwatchers who flock socially in the two lay-bys - car doors open, happily exchanging Solway birding stories of flocks of Barnacles, Pinkfeet, Whooper and Bewick Swans, European White-fronts, Bean Geese - not to mention rarities such as a Red-breasted Goose and Snow Geese whilst happily still digiscoping our rare vagrant Great White Egret on the Saltmarsh Pool (probably the most photographed GWE in history). One of our local birders and an excellent photographer at that, made the amusing comment the other day that the GWE was showing so well as he scouted past (on a Red-breasted Goose chase) that he felt it would have been rude not to have photographed it - a comment I think we can all relate to!
It has become most noticeable on the road skirting the Saltmarsh in our area that there has been an increase in birder numbers. Ornithology in the last three decades must be one of the big growth industries. The array of expensive optics now being sported are truly impressive and the birder traffic competing with the increasing size of farm tractors and implements certainly create exciting moments on our tiny marshland road … but we would not have it otherwise! Birding is one of the past several decade’s success stories - one of the few road conjestion problems that one can view with equanimity!
Pink-footed Geese over the saltmarsh.
Pinks resting and grazing on saltmarsh.
Mixed Pinks and Barnacles on Solway pastures.
Barnacle flock over Campfield saltmarsh.
Barnacles on estuary mudflats.
Barnacles grazing estuary pastures.
Group photo.
Whoopers over North Plain Farm.
Whooper family group from the hide.
Whoopers taking off from hide wetland.
Great White Egret still frequenting Saltmarsh Pool - looking healthy now after apparent injury.
Dunlin in one of their recent aerial displays.
Oystercatcher with flying Dunlin near Viaduct.
Dunlin landing.
Pintail, Wigeon and Redshank on tideline.
Dusk on the Estuary.