Since my last post in mid November there has not been a great deal to report though the rather wet end of year ensured that the floods were a good size. The highlights since the last post were of the duck variety with a drake GOLDENEYE (only the second ever on the Meadow) the star of the show, followed by a drake POCHARD. This latter species is less than annual so still a nice bird though nowhere near the rarity of the Goldeneye. Apart from that there were a few odd gulls - a possible Caspian Gull found by Thomas Miller was decided to be a hybrid in the end. We did have up to half a dozen PINTAIL on the floods and a few GOOSANDER visiting the Meadow to roost. The BARNACLE GOOSE flock was also a regular visitor in December. There were one or two REDSHANK seen along the river as well - usually for some reason we seem to have exactly five birds each winter so this is down on that count.
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| Drake Goldeneye Courtesy of Thomas Miller |
Thomas Miller has now taken over WeBS Count duties from me. Below are his tallies for December.
Wigeon 522
Goldeneye 1
Shelduck 2
Shoveller 10
Teal 69
Swan 9
Pintail 1
Moorhen 1
Lapwing 110
Golden plover 1
Little egret 1
Mallard 34
Heron 1
Canada goose 83
Greylag goose 323
Bhg 239
Lbbg 11
Redshank 1
Herring gull 1
Cormorant 4
All in all the mild weather
meant that there was no winter movement to speak of and it all ended up
being rather samey in the last month.
