Box End Park WeBS: 18/01/2015

It was Great Duck Hunt day in Bedfordshire so everyone was out counting wildfowl at the local waterways. This is done to try to get an overall view of the number of wildfowl in Bedfordshire. It is deliberately run alongside the WeBS weekend so that many of the sites are already counted.

It was a cold start with the temperature around freezing there were a good number of Lapwings at roost on the Spit when I arrived and as usual they all got up, swirling around, making it tricky to count. After various attempts I came to an estimate of 200, the biggest count of the winter so far. They stuck around for quite some time before heading off west. A few minutes later some of them were back and they settled back in on the Spit until just before I left the site.

A Snipe got up, while the Lapwings were swirling about, and did a circuit of the park before heading off east.

The 3 Little Grebes and 3 Gadwalls were a nice surprise and the Black Swan was back again, hanging out with the 10 Mute Swans.

Here are the morning counts for WeBS.

Black Swan 1
Black-headed Gull 8
Buzzard 1
Canada Goose 2
Coot  1
Cormorant 16
Gadwall 3
Grey Heron 2
Kingfisher 1
Lapwing 200
Little Grebe 3
Mallard 45
Meadow Pipit 4
Moorhen 3
Mute Swan 10 Pair with 5 cygnets and 3 other adults.
Skylark 1
Snipe 1

Total number of species: 17, Individuals: 302
 

Black Swan