The Lincolnshire Bird Club

An impressive 16,000 Golden Plover flew into the wash this evening (observed from the Wash Viewpoint), never seen this many in my life! Also 2000 Lapwing with the Golden Plover.

Waxwing 49 (29 South). The other 20 were around Sykes Farm/Plantation all day. (My Waxwing total is now at 423, since the beginning of November).

A couple of Bramblings calling in the plantation.

Teal numbers have been building in the past few days, but still no Green-winged Teal yet!

Cheers,

Richard (with Garry Wright)

Interesting about the Golden Plover, Richard. There were massive numbers at Frampton this afternoon. Les Ditchburn and I were watching them streaming in from The Wash from 2pm onwards and by about 3.30pm we estimated that there were touching 8000 of them blanketing the wet grassland.

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Looks as though its going to be a good winter for this species, could be an indication of a good breeding season in Iceland (or/and Northern Europe) this year.

The 16000 Golden Plover, seemed to be coming of the farmland just to the west of Gibraltar Point. There were several flocks comprising of between 1000 and 2000 birds, after a few flocks went by there was just an endless stream for about 30 minutes (15:00-15:30). The birds flew across the wash on quite a broad front extending from Gibraltar Point to Wainfleet. They all gathered in 2 huge flocks over the wash, swirling around for about 15 minutes or so (quite a sight!), then some birds seemed to go back west towards the fields again. A minimum of 16000 birds were involved. I wouldn't be surprised if the flock was around the 20000 mark!

Interesting note about how many Waxwings you have had Richard,over 700 have been recorded at Spurn,the most since 1965.


Regards,


Steve.

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Hi Steve.

I would think between all the staff, volunteers and local birders at Gibraltar Point this autumn/winter there has been in excess of a 1000 birds so far! The best day so far was on the 16th of December involving a total of 124 birds flying south.

To think that were not even half way through the winter yet!

Cheers,
Richard