Sunderland Point Lades Marsh WeBS Count

[Alan Smith]

#2912

30 Shelduck
250 Dunlin
348 Redshank
20 Oystercatcher
5 Turnstone
1 Wigeon (Looking very lost)
1 Bar Tailed Godwit (Very lame left leg but feeding very hard)
1 Black Tailed Godwit
3 Little Egret
2 Curlew
7 Eider
6 LBB Gull
18.30 c180 Black Tailed Godwit landed river side, did anyone have them today for their WeBS count, with us over the last few days and mention WeBS all disappear. They were later spooked by a Peregrine and landed further up river when Peregrine veered east.
We have a Starling who likes to sing (if that is what you call it) interposed with a repertoire of mimicking, so far I have managed to listen to Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank and Crow but amazingly the latest offering is Buzzard, the pesky thing had me looking for one this afternoon until I latched on to Starling in Walnut tree.
Has anyone else got an entertaining Starling in residence, if so it would be interesting to hear what they are mimicking

[guymcclelland]

#3031

Hi Alan,

I have wanted to reply to this but I haven’t been able to log on until recently. I live in Hala and curlew and lapsing are commonly mimicked by starlings. I have also heard oystercatcher, buzzard and BHG. For the last two years, a starling has sat on my roof and it interrupts its song with mallard quacks. You look up expecting to see a female mallard with a couple of male attendants, but it is the starling.

[Alan Smith]

#3036

Hi Guy,
Thanks for your Starling update, they really are entertaining once in full flaw, so realistic is the mimic as you say it has you searching for the real thing. I wonder if any of the winter visitors from Europe take with them any mimics learned during winter, you can imagine one deep in a European city belting out an Oystercatcher mimic with observers all confused.

[Barrie Cooper]

#3038

A Starling imitating singing Common Rosefinch on a visit to Belarus once had me excited. As it was April I realised it was probably too early for a Rosefinch before finding the Starling on the other side of a farm building – a bit of an anticlimax.

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