Box End Park WeBS: 19/01/2014

Cloudy and mild for this month's WeBS count. With the recent flooding I wasn't expecting much as the birds are able to find standing water just about anywhere at the moment. Although the species list was sparse I did manage a new site tick with the 10 Teal. The Mallard count was surprisingly high, back up where it used to be. Here are the numbers:

Black-headed Gull 52  
Canada Goose 3  
Common Gull 1  
Cormorant 4  
Grey Heron 2  
Mallard 106  
Meadow Pipit 1
Moorhen 2  
Mute Swan 13  (includes Orange 744)
Teal 10  (Departed 07:55)

Total number of species: 10, Individuals: 194

Other note worthy sightings included:

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 drumming
Green Woodpecker 2
Skylark 1 over west

Probably the best sighting of the morning was the Little Owl calling while perched in a tree on the west side of the park, by the road. Another could be heard calling a little further off, on the far side of the road near the stables. Another site tick.

Willington GP Starling Roost - Latest

The Starling roost at Willington GP is getting quite popular, especially during the Christmas holidays. Numbers of birds remain high at 10-15 thousand. The displays have been quite subdued to date with no predators around to stir things up but on Saturday the 28th December we were treated to quite a spectacle with virtually all the birds remaining in the sky together and a couple of Sparrowhawks trying to catch their dinner. It was a shame the sunset didn't live up to the display but I guess you can't have it all.

Here are some photo's from recent weeks:

 

Box End Park WeBS: 15/12/2013

Nothing exciting to report for the December WeBS coutn at Box End Park:

Black-headed Gull 52  
Buzzard 1  
Cormorant 2  
Grey Heron 1  
Grey Wagtail 1  
Kingfisher 1  
Little Grebe 2  
Mallard 46 Also 16 over north and 3 over west.
Meadow Pipit 3 Also 1 over west.
Moorhen 3  
Mute Swan 10  
Sparrowhawk 1  

Total number of species: 12, Individuals: 123

Also of note were:

Redwing 6 over south
Fieldfare 4 over west
Lapwing 24 over south east
Skylark 5 over west

The survey at Putnoe Wood was a bit better this month with a few more species recorded. Highlight was the Mistle Thrushes:

Blackbird 2 Blue Tit 19 Bullfinch 1 Carrion Crow 7 Chaffinch 1 Coal Tit 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 Great Tit 18 Green Woodpecker 1 Jackdaw 10 Magpie 3 Mistle Thrush 2 Nuthatch 1 Redwing 1 Robin 7 Song Thrush 1 Stock Dove 1 Treecreeper 2 Woodpigeon 2 Wren 3