Today was the date for this month's
BTO WeBS count, so I popped down to Linacre for 6:45am to see what was about.
As soon as I arrived into the car park I had a nice surprise as there were 2
Stock Doves feeding on the ground, my first Linacre record for 2017. Unfortunately, they both flew up as I drove in, so I didn't get a photo. Walking down to the bottom reservoir I had a couple of
Great-spotted Woodpeckers drumming, along with the usual
Tits,
Chaffinches,
Dunnocks,
Wrens and
Blackbirds all singing.
Tufted Ducks were on the bottom reservoir, and in total I saw 47, along with 49
Mallards, 4
Great-crested Grebes (2 pairs), 12
Coots, 10
Moorhens, 1
Cormorant, 2
Grey Wagtails, 9
Black-headed Gulls, 8
Mandarin Ducks, including 5 together in trees by the Rangers' Base, and, best of all, a male
Wigeon - a "year tick" and my first here since December 2015. Here's a heavily cropped photo, because, as usual, it stayed in the middle of the reservoir!
Wigeon
As well as counting the waterbirds I also managed to record my first Linacre Chiffchaff of the year, with 1 singing on the south side of the middle reservoir. Other signs of Spring included a lovely big patch of frogspawn on the top reservoir, a flowering Marsh Marigold, also on the top reservoir, Wild Garlic leaves, some lovely Daffodils and at least 4 singing Song Thrushes.
Frogspawn
Marsh Marigold
Daffodils
One final sighting of note today was this dead fish, found in the overflow from the middle reservoir. I think it's a Perch, which, unsurprisingly, is a species I haven't recorded here before.
Perch?
