WHITLINGHAM: New record Shoveler count

13th January 2024

The path around the Great Broad is still flooded in places, with the water level almost reaching the wooden bridges along the south shore. A local resident remarked that it was the highest he'd ever seen the water here and implicated the hard infrastructure (e.g. the car parks), but that would overlook the large swathes of the county that have been flooded for some time. Anyway, knowing what it was like I wore my wellies and carried on.

As it was WeBS weekend I carried out a complete wildfowl count, the undoubted highlight of which was the number of Shoveler present. They started increasing in number during the week, and the 61+ present on Friday had been a new site record, but careful scanning from multiple viewpoints led to me counting (and double-counting!) 83 on Saturday, a mixture of adult drakes, immature drakes and females. So currently a site high count, but who is to say that the numbers won't keep increasing over the next week?

Sadly there was no sign of the Pintail that had been seen on Friday, a bird I've only seen here twice. There were however 2 Goldeneye, 2 Wigeon, 249 Tufted Ducks (including the pink-billed one), 122 Gadwall, 25 Teal and 11 Pochard, so a good selection of ducks. The wintering Great White Egret showed well, as did the 'brown' Cormorant discussed in last years Whitlingham Bird Report. Close-up views of five Lesser Redpoll and a Redwing, a flyover Ring-necked Parakeet and two Sparrowhawks up in the distance were all welcome sitings too.