I completed the monthly Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) this morning, with some nice species turning up including some first site records for the winter. Here are this morning’s results –
151 teal
127 tufted duck
117 mallard
46 gadwall
29 shoveler
15 wigeon
10 pochard
1 goldeneye – first site record this winter, with tufted ducks on Phase 2
16 mute swan
22 whooper swan – the first on the deck this winter, a nice group on Phase 3 comprising 17 adults and 5 juveniles
2 greylag goose
148 coot
6 moorhen
10 little grebe
7 great crested grebe
7 cormorant
4 grey heron
4 little egret
28 lapwing
6 snipe
2 green sandpiper
1 jack snipe – first site record this winter, on Phase 2
33 black-headed gull
33 lesser black-backed gull
2 common gull
1 herring gull
1 great black-backed gull
Also on site this morning there was a Cetti’s warbler singing in silt lagoon 6. This is the first site record since March this year. Singing chiffchaffs on the public footpath by the silt lagoons, redwings feeding in the hedgerow by the silt lagoons and masses of skylarks and meadow pipits moving overhead.