31st December

Sorry this is so late. I'll explain more why in my next post.


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.

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.