Early January...
A lack of Grey Herons and Little Egrets on the Reserve and estuary this week but they were feeding happily in horse paddocks of the Teifi floodplain near the sawmill past Llechryd. Counts yesterday of 7 Little Egrets and 4 Grey Heron. This area c7km up river is a little away past the established Heronry.
Only the 1 male Goldeneye and 1 male Goosander on the river, Goosanders are likely to be upriver and Goldeneye numbers continue to decline...see below
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| Male Goldeneye - photo Tommy Evans |
Geese around the estuary - a summary of numbers this week, 134 Barnacle , 2 Greylag and 5-600 Canada Geese.
Lapwings and Golden Plover have remained around the estuary during the week in variable numbers depending in the tides, max so far c500 of each on the 1st. c100 Dunlin are around the estuary often feeding in front of the yellow house - a good mid winter count. A Common Sandpiper is still wintering in town, usually near the blue boat restaurant.
A 2nd/ 3w Iceland Gull was bathing pre roost on the 1st, not seen since but was the second Iceland Gull of the winter on the Teifi.
A little look back at sightings over the past 5 years from the first week of January years on the Teifi...
2021 .. 580 Common Gulls a high count on the 7th.
2020 .. Glaucous Gull on the river and a Firecrest in Poppit Wood on the 4th, and on the 7th a Willow Tit.
2019 .. On the 1st a Cattle Egret and on the 6th a Light-bellied Brent and a juv Greenland White-fronted Goose with the usual Geese on the Cliff fields.
2018 .. A good start to the year on the 1st with Water Pipit, Common Sandpiper, and Teifi scarcities of Coot and Tufted Duck.
2017 .. On the 1st, 6 Goldeneye, on the 2nd an Iceland Gull with a Yellow-legged Gull and on the 3rd a Bittern. Until the last few years Bittern was a wintering species with up to 3 birds present, the last Bittern record was a summer bird arriving on 27th July 2020.
Looking back into Teifi records - Mick Baines in 1985 wrote of Goldeneye, "regular winter visitor to the tidal river, usually 6-12 birds remain through the winter".
Rich D and Wendy J