12 February 2012

After a week away from Westport with work and feeling a bit under the weather I was rather looking forward too this mornings visit, that was until I opened the front door, I sent a text to Nick about it being my first day out for a week and I can't see a thing, his reply 'and it's duck count day'. It was foggy last Sunday but this was twice as bad and it wasn't going to make easy birding this morning, the good news was it was much warmer at 2c and the main lake was now around 40% ice free, although you wouldn't know this from the bottom end with the fog, no wind of note but it was apparently a light WSW, visit from 07.25 til 10.00.

A couple of Mistle Thrushes were on the playing field and I could hear Redwing calling through the fog and later we saw 6 on the playing field, on the boating lake Mute Swan numbers have increased with 11 (2 adult and the rest youngsters), the 2 resident adults were on the main lake, a single Tufted Duck was on the boating lake and with just 19 on the main lake it was a very poor count, also on the main lake 5 Wigeon which was a Westport year tick for me, 7 Pochard and a single Great Crested Grebe.
As we made our way into the nature reserve a Grey Wagtail flew over, another Westport year tick out of the way, the only other bird of note in here was a Grey Heron flushed off the stream, 2 Stock Doves were on the old gas works and as we made our way along the canal side of the main lake we had a single Great Spotted Woodpecker and a flock of around 40 Goldfinches.

We'd made our way back to the boating lake were Nick wanted to count the Mallard for the WEBS count, we'd noticed a flock of Gulls in the middle on the ice and as I was looking through them for a Yellow-legged Gull I couldn't believe my eyes when a full adult GLAUCOUS GULL landed in the middle of the group, I rather casually told Nick what I was looking at and within minutes the news was out and over the next 30 minutes or so at least 20 birders had been able to connect with it.
It did fly off briefly only to land a little bit further away on the main lake, this is the first record at Westport since 2004 and a Westport tick for me!!
Previous records of Glaucous Gull at Westport, kindly provided by Nick Smith, are as follows:

Glaucous Gull	1983	3w on Jan 24th.
	Glaucous Gull	1984	1w roosted Feb 19th.
	Glaucous Gull	1985	3w on Jan 27th, Feb 12th, 24th and 25th.
	Glaucous Gull	1986	1w on Jan 18, 26th, Feb 2nd. 2w on Feb 2nd. 3/4w Feb 8th and 16th. Adult Jan 1st, two adults from Jan 2nd to March 3rd.
	Glaucous Gull	1987	1st yr April 4th.
	Glaucous Gull	1988	2w Feb 6-21, 1st w Feb 28. 1w Dec 16
	Glaucous Gull	1989	1w on Jan 8th and 19th.
	Glaucous Gull	1990	1w Jan 14. 1w flew s with Herring Gulls 24 dec.
	Glaucous Gull	1999	A 1w for five minutes on Feb 1st.
	Glaucous Gull	2004	A 1w on Dec 27th.

Below are a few of the photo's I managed of the bird in foggy conditions, I've had to adjust the photo's to give better light and cropped a couple of them. I've saved the best til last, but I'm sure some of the other lads will have better photo's.

I'm not sure what it is with Westport at the moment, possibly the fog or is it just turning into the place to be on a Sunday, but for the second Sunday on the trot it has come up with the goods, this time a phone call from Phil Jones had me running down there, and it was well worth it with 11 Whooper Swans sat on the ice, these are the first at Westport since January 2010, and only the second county record this year, they were still present as I left and look settled so hopefully will still be present in the morning, these put Westport on 64 species for the year and a added bonus was they were Westport ticks for me, two in a day, not a bad day at all!!

Previous records of Whooper Swan at Westport, kindly provided by Nick Smith, are as follows:

Whooper Swan	1979	Three adults on Dec 31st
Whooper Swan	1980	Four Jan 1st.
Whooper Swan	1989	Adult on 27th April was the bird that wintered with Mute Swans at Sandbach
Whooper Swan	1990	Three on dec 10th.
Whooper Swan	1991	Tame one with Mute Swans July 2-4th.
Whooper Swan	1994	An adult on Oct 28th was joined by seven more on 29th.
Whooper Swan	1997	A tame feral adult on Apr 17th, 19th to 28th and May 1st to 23rd.
Whooper Swan	1999	Two adults on Jan 29th.
Whooper Swan	2000	13 adults flew thru on Nov 19th to SE
Whooper Swan	2002	17 adults flew high NW on Mar 13th
Whooper Swan	2003	Two probable feral birds associated with Mute Swans from May 4th to 6th.