A Pleasant Surprise

With the column next to the wader section of my Flintshire 2010 list looking like a pools coupon, I nipped over to Connah’s Quay this lunchtime for the high tide.

I bumped into a few familiar faces today including a couple of veterans from Sunday’s slick and successful ‘Operation Bonaparte’ and a fellow member of the Point of Ayr diaspora.

Feeling energetic I walked down to the reserve again from the gate and was rewarded with a brief view of the now resident Red-legged Partridge scurrying across the marsh about a chain short of the west hide.

A Ruff and a good count of twelve Snipe on the perimeter of the Ash Pool were notable, but the mudflats were only sprinkled with modest numbers of Redshank, Blackwit and Dunlin.

Turning my attention to the small strip of marsh that runs along the road I was surprised to see a ringtail Hen Harrier hunting near the bunded pools – my first ‘pukka’ one for the reserve, as all my previous sightings had been of birds the other side of the river over White Sands.

There was just enough time left before the tide topped-out to pluck out a Ringed Plover from the assorted shorebirds – number 97 for Flintshire – before the rising water level forced the waders over towards Flint to roost - signalling it was time to call it a day.

Connah’s Quay 20.01.10

1 Hen Harrier (ringtail)
1 Red-legged Partridge
1 Ruff
12 Snipe
300+ Black-tailed Godwit
100 Dunlin
250 Redshank

Until later.