This month’s Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) was completed last week by volunteers Stuart Carlton and Matt Marsh, on what was quite possibly the coldest day of the winter so far. Almost 100% of the site was frozen, the ice cover displacing many of the birds, as can be seen by the low counts for some species. Here are the day’s results –
123 teal
86 tufted duck
33 mallard
17 gadwall
13 shoveler
7 pochard
7 mute swan
11 shelduck
91 coot
1 water rail
8 grey heron
5 little egret
3 snipe
1 green sandpiper
70 black-headed gull
2 common gull
Notable absences include goldeneye, however they are back now we have thawed, moorhen, cormorant, lapwing, lesser black-backed gull and the red-crested pochard, which is also now back on site.
On Thursday morning last week, Beach Hut volunteers Pam and Allan were treated to an excellent view of a bittern in reed north of the boardwalk. Do keep an eye open in this area, you never know....
Bittern - it's in there somewhere! Ben Andrew (rspb-imges.com)