Myself and warden Paul completed the monthly WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) yesterday morning and were certainly grateful that the weather has improved from last week! The site is thawing nicely now, after being under 4-5 inches of snow on Friday. During the count we recorded –
5 mute swan
2 shelduck
63 pochard
4 goldeneye
79 tufted duck
94 mallard
33 gadwall
53 wigeon
192 teal
60 coot
5 moorhen
2 water rail
1 great crested grebe
3 little grebe
2 cormorant
2 snipe
20 lapwing
1 kingfisher
2 common gull
And a whopping c.600 black headed gulls
Also on site yesterday was the female smew, visible from the public footpath on silt lagoon 4, a raven over silt lagoon 6 – a good record for Langford, 2 grey partridge on grassland around the balancing pond and a male stonechat on Phase 2. The marsh tit is still present at the corner of the woodland and Cottage Lane and the large flock of finches, buntings, tits and tree sparrows at the feeders seems to be increasing still as I watched them yesterday after filling up the feeders. Mammal wise, I have been treated to good views of the regular roe deer around Phase 2, plenty of hares and almost daily sightings of a nice looking fox around Phases 2 and 3.