Linacre WeBS - January 2016

No ringing this morning, so instead I was down at Linacre to carry out the first WeBS count of 2016. I was on site at 7.30am, and got a lovely photo as the sun came up a bit later.

Linacre middle reservoir

I walked around all three reservoirs, and recorded the following birds: Shag (3 juveniles on the bottom reservoir), Cormorant (7 in the Beech trees by the bottom reservoir, including 2 in full breeding plumage), Great-crested Grebe (1 winter plumaged bird), Little Grebe (1 bird on the middle reservoir), Mallard (77), Tufted Duck (24), Moorhen (10), Coot (8, the highest count of the year so far), Grey Heron (2), Grey Wagtail (1 heard), Kingfisher ( 1 on middle reservoir), Mandarin Duck (15), Goosander (1 male) and Black-headed Gull (25). I'm really pleased with these numbers, especially the Shags and the Cormorants. A great start to 2016! Here's a picture of the Shags on the bottom reservoir.

Shags

There was a record of 216 Black-headed Gulls last week, which must have been amazing. A Common Gull was also with them, the first record since 2014.

Whilst walking around I also recorded three "year ticks", namely the Goosander, Bullfinch and Great-crested Grebe.

Year List update:

81 - Goosander

82 - Bullfinch

83 - Great-crested Grebe