26th January 2013
The cold conditions did me a favour today, with ice covering much of the Great Broad. An open area of water near the visitors centre held the Slavonian Grebe and a Goldeneye. A Water Rail ran across the ice and a Great-spotted Woodpecker flew out of a nearby tree. Speaking of trees I ticked Alder, Oak, Silver Birch, Yew and Scot's Pine on my way round. It wasn't all good news - I found out that once again no moth trapping events are scheduled here this year, taking away a good source of species.
I also took a picture of three lichens, which I will attempt to ID (feel free to help if you have already seen these ones!)
Goldeneye
Slav Grebe, finally in range of my camera
A very numerous yellow lichen sp (Xanthoria parietina?), plus a grey-green one
Another unidentified 'splat' lichen
Current total: 47 species
I also popped in for a sneaky Slav Grebe today James, after taking the kids skiing, but clearly didn't look properly as I didn't notice the Goldeneye. How many Pochard are there? Seems to be loads!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you need to make friends with the cafe staff to do some mothing there over the summer! Or find yourself a genny. I have one I can lend you if you're keen.
I didn't notice the Goldeneye on my first (or last) scans, but handily it popped up close to me whilst I was photographing the Slav Grebe. I counted 132 Pochard, which is my highest Whitlingham count. From the WeBS spreadsheet you gave me it looks like the highest site count is 143 (no higher counts on BirdTrack, my records or those that others have sent me), so that is pretty good, especially crammed into one pool.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the offer, although given previous experience I would probably rather be there at night as part of a group! I do know one of the summer volunteers there, so I will have a word next time I see him.