Tuesday 29 December 2015

Pennington Marsh - 21st December

I hadn't been to Pennington Marsh since 4th October and with a free morning I decided to pop down for a few hours birding. On the marshes off the bend at the bottom of Lower Pennington Lane there were many Wigeon, Teal and Pintail, many displaying in the early morning sunshine. Waders here included 12 Ruff and around 250 Black-tailed Godwit. I walked on to the Efford Lagoon where there 150 Herring Gull, 15 Great Black-backed Gull and 200 Black-headed Gull. The latter included an adult colour ringed bird with an orange ring on the left leg with the combination 2LAS (or 2LA5), this bird appears to be from the Northern Ireland ringing scheme which can be viewed here http://bhgullsni.blogspot.co.uk, I have contacted the organisers of this scheme and will post here when I have an update on this individual. I walked out to the jetty, around Butts Lagoon and to Fishtail Lagoon seeing 250 Brent Goose, eight Red-breasted Merganser, six Bar-tailed Godwit, 25 Grey Plover and 300 Dunlin. A pair of Reed Bunting showed well as they fed on the path.

Wigeon - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Wigeon - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Oystercatcher - Efford Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Herring Gull (1st Winter) - Efford Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Dunlin - Butts Bay, Pennington Marsh

Brent Goose - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Brent Goose - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Reed Bunting - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh