I completed the monthly WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) on Monday this week on a beautifully sunny, but very cold winter’s morning. January’s WeBS is usually very productive as the numbers of wintering wildfowl have built up over the previous couple of months and this year’s count didn’t disappoint. With much of the reserve’s waterbodies frozen, the birds were concentrated into a smaller area too, making the spectacle even better! Throughout the morning’s count I recorded the following –
3 goldeneye, including the first female of the winter
44 tufted duck
110 mallard
17 pochard
27 gadwall
91 wigeon
509 teal
1 shelduck
4 mute swan
1 greylag goose
2 canada goose
4 grey heron
4 little grebe
2 great crested grebe
27 coot
2 water rail
2 lapwing
1 snipe
1 cormorant
1 kingfisher
510 black headed gulls
Also on site this week is a male stonechat on Phase 2, 2 short eared owls on Phase 3, up to 30 tree sparrows around the Phase 1 viewing screen, a little egret on Phase 2 and the marsh tit around the woodland corner and Cottage Lane. And one to look out for….a highly probable lesser spotted woodpecker, seen briefly by myself and volunteers Graham Gamage and Julie Straw on Monday morning, flying overhead and silhouetted by the sun, around the corner of the woodland and Cottage Lane.