Every month we undertake a WeBS count of the reserve land holdings.   WeBS stands for Wetland Bird Survey.  This is a useful way of seeing how birds are responding to seasons, the weather and of course, our management.  Sunday's count revealed quite a few winter birds coming back rather early.  We counted 237 Wigeon, 337 Teal and 7 Pintail.  We also now have 759 Lapwing on the wet grassland areas.  I was particularly lucky while counting the Main Lake to see the female Smew quite close. 

Our female Smew, by Ian Forrest.

This bird has been on the reserve for a few weeks now, yet is something we would expect to see mid-winter.  It gave great views from the Visitor Centre, or the café.  You could have Smew and chips.

Waders continue to move through and on the day we had 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank, 2 Green sandpiper, 69 Dunlin and 13 Ruff, two of which gave excellent views right in front of Paddy's Hide. 

One of our Ruff, by Mark Stokeld.

And now that we've cut the grass short, They're even easier to see !

Although it's been a bad year for Dragonflies, there are quite a few MIgrant Hawkers around just now, and this female was photographed by the Phil Stead Hide this morning.

Female Migrant Hawker by Ian Forrest

Migrant Hawkers are the Collard Doves of the Dragonfly world.  They colonised England during the 1950's and have spread slowly northwards since then.  Many years ago when I was a young man with disposable income, I used to venture south to Skipwith Common near York to see them, and now I find myself working among them.  You can tell it is a Migrant Hawker because it has very short anti-humeral stripes.  Those are the two very short light lines that hang down on the thorax, just behind each eye.  They are full length of the thorax on a Common Hawker, and big fat things on a Southern Hawker.  Migrant Hawkers are much less territorial than the other hawkers and so you'll often see them hunting in small groups on tracks and in clearings.