Whimbrel – Quernmore

[Pete Crooks]

#7356

27 Whimbrel in a field just east of Little Fell Road (SD 508 606) at 1.30 pm.

Coincidentally I saw 27 Whimbrel in the same field on the same date last year.

Pete C

[eddybayton]

#7357

Brilliant. I’ve been looking for these birds last week without luck. From my experience it’s always about 20th-30th April and always about 20-30 birds always in roughly the same spot. A friend tells me there is a roost near Castle O’Trim

[Pete Crooks]

#7388

33 Whimbrel in the same field as above at 1.40 pm today, with 37 there at 3.40 pm.

Pete C

[Pete Crooks]

#7393

After Ian Hartley saw 75 Whimbrel in the usual field at 9.00 am, I had a check this lunchtime and saw 73 at 12.30 pm (though some may have been out of slight beyond the break of slope at the far side of the field). The group included a colour-ringed bird – a yellow ring with a 2 or 3 character code (too distant to read) on its right tibia and a green ring on its left tibia.

Also: 2 Wheatear (male and female).

Pete C

[Pete Crooks]

#7408

I received the following from Tony Cross of the Mid Wales Ringing Group about the colour-ringed Whimbrel:

“Yes, definitely one of ours but I’m afraid we have ringed over 500 in the past 14 or so years and they nearly all have the same colour combination so without the 3 digit code I’m afraid there isn’t a lot else I can tell you other than that it was ringed in Wales, probably near Aberaeron.”

Pete C

[eddybayton]

#7409

Ridiculous, I spent half my childhood within 4 miles of Aberaeron! The hinterland behind the town and five or six miles further south is high moorland between the Aeron and Teifi valleys, very similar to the the undrained and unimproved parts of Quernmore. My father, who knew his stuff, showed us whimbrel every Spring and how to differentiate them from curlew on Banc Sion Cwilt on the road to Llandyssul. I went on a hunt without success earlier on today for whimbrel in drizzle. I was rewarded with two gems however. A tidy male pied flycatcher singing 15 yards in front of me in the little car park by the bridge in Abbeystead and a very surprising little owl I disturbed from a wall by Narr Lodge leaving Quernmore. This was a regular spot but I haven’t seen a little owl anywhere near Quernmore for probably 10 years.

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