We had our annual Christmas volunteer thank you event last night and as always it was amazing re-capping all the brilliant work our volunteer team have done throughout the year. On the Beach Hut welcoming visitors and monitoring wildlife, on the regular practical conservation work parties, in the office helping with species data recording and outside recording the life of the reserve through photography and carrying out wildlife surveys. During 2016 our volunteer team gave 4158 hours of their time to the Langford Lowfields and Beckingham Marshes reserves, which is pretty incredible and illustrates just how crucial a role they play in the running of the two sites.

On the subject of volunteers, our intrepid Reserve Photographer and Bird Surveyor; Stuart, was out again over the weekend in Arctic conditions carrying out the monthly Wetland Bird Survey (see results below). The highlight was undoubtedly the great white egret:

Mallard

100

Lesser Black backed gull

3

Greater Black backed gull

1

Black headed gull

52

Tufted duck

80

Teal

190

Coot

21

Moorhen

2

Pochard

2

Gadwall

25

Wigeon

15

Shoveler

8

Goldeneye

4

Mute swan

12

Cormorant

40

Lapwing

2

Great White egret

1

Grey Heron

3

Greylag goose

5

Canada goose

1

Snipe

4

Dunlin

1

Redshank

2

Langford great white egret caught on camera by Roger Bennett.

The WeBS counts give us a snapshot of the wildfowl numbers on that particular day and although because of this they may well miss the days when bird numbers are at their maximum they give us a good idea of general trends. Another volunteer, Roger (not the same one as took the GWE pic above), has been doing brilliant work helping us in the office, collating all the WeBS data into a spreadsheet to allow easier analysis and so for example we can see that already this winter the maximum number of wigeon and teal have reached higher levels than those recorded on WeBS counts last winter: Maximum wigeon count numbers were 76 last winter in Jan 2017, but 110 in November 2017 (this is in fact the highest WeBS count of wigeon since early 2014). Maximum teal numbers were 171 last winter in November 2016, but 211 Nov 2017. 

As the cold weather kicks in and with water levels on the rise, duck numbers should continue to increase. In terms of recent sightings, on a brief wander round the site yesterday I saw 5 goldeneye, along with 6 redshanks, a couple of green sandpipers, a stonechat and a handful of snipe.