The December WeBS count was conducted by myself and volunteer Stuart Carlton last Thursday. Strong winds certainly don’t make it easy with birds hunkering down in long vegetation and scopes shaking, but we went for it and the results are as follows –
181 teal
160 tufted duck
76 mallard
30 wigeon
17 gadwall
8 shoveler
7 goldeneye
6 pochard
1 pintail
11 mute swan
2 greylag goose
1 canada goose
88 coot
4 grey heron
1 little egret
4 little grebe
2 great crested grebe
70 lapwing
6 snipe
1 redshank
37 cormorant
241 black-headed gull
1 lesser black-backed gull