Time for the monthly WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) again this morning and October can be an exciting month with numbers of wildfowl and gulls building up. Here are the results of this morning’s count –
104 tufted duck
71 mallard
31 teal
13 gadwall
4 shoveler
1 wigeon
9 mute swan
8 great crested grebe
20 little grebe – a large count of this species!
34 coot
2 moorhen
5 cormorant
4 grey heron
5 little egret
48 black headed gull
27 lesser black backed gull
2 great black backed gull
1 common gull
4 snipe
2 green sandpiper
Also on site this morning was a lovely flock of 30 goldfinch feeding on Phase 3, 2 grey wagtails also on Phase 3, 6 redwing and a song thrush feeding on hawthorn berries on the public footpath at the southern end of the site and 2 roe deer, a female with a well grown calf, my first sighting of this species since the summer!