Every month, teams of volunteers head out around wetlands throughout the country to undertake detailed counts of the birds using our rivers, lakes, estuaries and coasts. These counts are part of the Wetland Birds Survey, known as WeBS, and they generate some incredibly important data. WeBS counts began in 1947, and the survey is run by a partnership between the RSPB, BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), WWT (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust) and JNCC (Joint Nature Conservation Committee). Similar counts across Europe also help us to monitor populations of wetland birds across their range, highlighting trends and alerting conservationists to population declines.
This month's WeBS count should have taken place on Sunday, but was postponed as we had to close the entire reserve as a precaution during Storm Ciara. Instead, our volunteers gathered on Tuesday morning, armed with binoculars, telescopes and clicker counters, to make as accurate count as possible of Minsmere's waterfowl. I chose my words deliberately there, because it's impossible to count every bird at the same time. They are prone to moving between areas, and if a peregrine or marsh harrier flies over mid count, then you may even have to start again.
When doing counts such as WeBS at big sites, like Minsmere, it is easier to break to area into smaller compartments. For example, while one volunteer might be counting West Scrape, another will count East Scrape. Even this areas are also broken down into smaller sections, often based on the location of banks or islands. Once all the compartments have been counted, the counts are added together to give the final totals.
Mallard, one of our commonest as well as most familiar ducks
Yesterday's counts for the Scrape were notably down on last months. This reflects a combination of strong winds keeping the birds quite mobile, some of the ducks having relocated to the Levels, and a proportion having already migrated back east. Despite that, they counted more than 2000 birds on the Scrape, alone. Ducks accounted for most of these (1609), but there were also 424 waders, plus smaller numbers of geese and gulls and other water birds.
The most numerous birds on the Scrape, in order, were 500 teal, 362 lapwings, 305 mallards, 259 gadwalls, 237 wigeons, 206 shovelers, 103 greylag geese, 63 shelducks, 37 pintails, 33 black-headed gulls, 30 avocets and 16 black-tailed godwits, plus single figure counts of curlew, turnstone, oystercatcher, common and herring gulls, moorhen, Canada goose and little egret. In addition, the drake green-winged teal and redhead smew were both still present, and a kingfisher was seen.
Teal were the most numerous ducks during the WeBS count
The WeBS counters also managed to spot a few more unusual birds elsewhere around the reserve. A great white egret and a dark-bellied brent goose were both seen on the South Levels, along with two peregrines and several hundred more lapwings. The family of five whooper swans returned to the pool behind South Hide, having been absent for a few days.
The windy conditions have made it harder to spot most of our reedbed specialists, especially the smaller ones, such as bearded tits and Cetti's warblers, but our volunteer guides have found these at Island Mere, along with one or two snipe, water rails and the occasional bittern. The latter have started booming, but it's not easy to hear them in the wind. One reedbed species that doesn't mind the wind so much is the marsh harrier, and several can usually be spotted quartering above the reeds, or perched in a low reedbed bush.
One normally elusive reedbed species has been stealing the show recently, though there have been fewer sightings during the windy weather this week. We're used to seeing otters at Island Mere or Bittern Hide, and even along the North Wall, but sightings on the Scrape are less typical. Not so for a few days last week! First, an otter was watched for a couple of hours chomping its way through snails outside Wildlife Lookout. Then, on Friday, what was presumably the same highly adaptable otter was seen chasing shoals of small fish into a sluice outlet pipe alongside the same hide. It then proceeded to swim into the pipe and swallow mouthfuls of fish, before repeating the behaviour time and again. It was so close to the hide that my colleague, Matt, managed this incredible photo showing the fish nestled inside the otter's mouth!
Otter by Matt Parrott
Even when it wasn't putting on such a ridiculously close show, it still performed spectacularly in the water, allowing Matt, and the many visitors who were present, to snap more great photos.
"Peek-a-boo!" The otter at Wildlife Lookout by Matt Parrott
Great spotted woodpeckers continue to drum in the woods, and there are regular sightings of green woodpeckers, treecreepers and jays, as well as a small flock of siskins around South Belt Crossroads. Sparrowhawks are regularly seen hunting around the visitor centre feeders, where with a bit of patience you should find marsh and coal tits among the more familiar blue and great tits and chaffinches. A male reed bunting was seen yesterday, too.
The first male adders have also begun to emerge, with two seen in North Bushes on Friday. If you are keen to see an adder (and why wouldn't you be?) then plan a visit during March or early April, when our volunteer guides will often be looking for them along our seasonal adder trail, between Bittern Hide and Island Mere.
This windy weather looks set to continue for at least a few more days. Unless the forecast worsens, however, we do not expect to have to close the reserve again this weekend, although some of the woodland paths may be closed for safety reasons. Please check on arrival for the latest accessibility news, and check our Facebook and Twitter pages for news of any unplanned closures.