Here are the records from the WEBS count carried out on Monday morning...
Reedbed: 43 mallard, 3 wigeon, 158 teal, 4 cormorant, 4 shoveler, 7 black-headed gulls, 2 mute swans, 1 grey heron
Greenaways: 2 mallard, 25 golden plover, 1 snipe
Big Otmoor: 6 wigeon, 1 snipe, 4 teal, 2 mallard
Ashgrave: 101 greylag geese, 250 lapwing
It was a shame to see that the number of teal and wigeon has gone down since the last WEBS done 2 weeks ago. The short-eared owls are still being seen every evening though, mainly over Greenaways and Closes and the hen harrier is also regularly over the Car Park Field and Closes in the mornings. Unfortunatly although the dry conditions seem to be good for these amazing raptors, it has meant that as well as wader and wildfowl nubers being lower than expected, the starling roost has dwindled to a paltry 25 birds (5th Dec). Other recent sightings include a bearded tit and 2 kingfishers reported from the reedbed (5th Dec), a peregrine which flew over whilst I was counting the starlings (5th) and a water rail seen in the reedbed on Tuesday (6th Dec).