The Whitlingham Bird Report for 2023 is now available to download from the Bird Reports page or from here

WHITLINGHAM: May WeBS - crow predation of Greylag gosling.

23rd May 2021

The May WeBS count got off to a dramatic start, as whilst counting the geese on the beach area a Carrion Crow picked up a Greylag gosling and flew off with it, flying across the path in front of me and dropping it onto the barn meadow, where it proceeded to kill and eat it! Whilst the Carrion Crows are an ever present in this area I had never actually seen them take a gosling before (and it wasn't a newly hatched one either). Since posting this observation on Twitter another observer told me that she had seen the same thing, and that actually the crows seem to have developed a technique for coralling the young against the shore. This could partly accout for the seemingly low number of fledged goslings this year.

Other than the gosling predation there wasn't too much of note, a brood of 6 cygnets had hatched and six Common Terns were present, whilst four Tufted Ducks were the only non-Mallard ducks. There was a good range of insects seen, including Aglaostigma fulvipes, a fairly common sawfly but a new one for the site, and a Stonefly (unfortunately not able to identify it to species level).




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