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

WHITLINGHAM: November WeBS & Italian Alder Aphid

7th November 2021

I had delayed my WeBS count until the afternoon because during the week the local Ring-necked Parakeet had been roosting in the trees on the main island. It didn't come in whilst I was there, so for the moment my patch list remains Parakeet-less. There was a welcome increase in duck numbers (i.e. there actually were some), with 72 Tufted Duck, 82 Gadwall, 1 Wigeon, 1 Teal and 1 Mandarin. Twelve Little Grebes, a Water Rail and a couple of Little Egrets were also of note. I stayed until dusk, listening to the Cormorants call to each other as they went to roost. There was an Italian Alder near to where I was initially standing at the bird screen, so on the off chance I checked some low hanging leaves and managed to find an Italian Alder Aphid, a rather odd looking species that seems to resemble a scale insect more than an aphid.



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