Linacre WeBS - 21st August 2016

This Sunday was the set date for this month's WeBS count, so Luke and I went down for a couple of hours to see what was about. Numbers were average for this time of the year, and the highlight was the immature Shag that celebrated its 9 month anniversary today, being first recorded on 21st November 2015 (see details here). The Shag was on the bottom reservoir, fishing just by the wall. I managed to get a  quick photo, looking into the early morning sun, before it swam off.

Shag

Other waterbirds seen this month were: Mallard (60), Grey Heron (4; 1 on the bottom reservoir and 3 together in trees on the middle reservoir), Mandarin Duck (16), Coot (6; 4 adults and 2 well grown juveniles), Moorhen (3; 1 adult and 2 juveniles), Grey Wagtail (2), Great-crested Grebe (5; 1 adult and 1 juvenile on the middle reservoir and 1 adult and 2 juveniles on the top reservoir), Kingfisher (1 heard on the middle reservoir) and Tufted Duck (30; 28 adults and 2 "fluffy" ducklings).

Tufted Duck (duckling)

The woodland birds are pretty quiet at this time of the year, so we didn't hear too much else, although one bird, the Green Woodpecker, was a good record, being just the second record for 2016. Other birds seen or heard were Common Buzzard (1 heard), Nuthatch (heard), Wren (singing), Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit, Robin (juvenile), Great-spotted Woodpecker (heard) and Willow Warbler (1 singing).