At the weekend several of the team carried out the monthly WeBS UK count of the LDV’s waterfowl, as part of the national ‘Wetland Bird Survey’. These surveys have taken place on the NNR since the 1960s, and with the use of standard methodology, allow trends in wildfowl and wader populations to be studied, both at a site level and across the county.
Of the 27,500 birds counted in the Lower Derwent this weekend 20,500 were swans, geese and ducks which included an impressive 1,092 Pintail. This represents the second highest count on record for the LDV following last winter’s record breaking 1,120 in February 2024. From looking at previous years WeBS data, we can see that the ten-year averages for winter peak counts show that numbers were in the range of 54-70 during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, with numbers then increasing to an average of 186 during the 1990s, and more dramatically to 468 during the 2000s. Peak counts during the 2000s passed 600 birds in four winter periods, with the largest count of that decade of 674 in 2007/08, being surpassed by a count of 716 ten years later in the 2017/18 winter period, before two counts of 800+ more recently as well as last year’s peak of 1,120. It’s great to see the value of these long-term monitoring schemes, and to see Pintail, such a stunning and eloquent duck, doing so well here, perhaps as they start to shift their range in response to climate. Many thanks to all of our counters who have helped to contribute to this data set.
Contact CHAINRETRIEVAL@YAHOO.COM for scammed funds. If a withdrawal is not in your control as it should be on a trading platform, yet taxes and percentages are being demanded, it is a scam! Mail a report to CHAINRETRIEVAL@YAHOO.COM They will resolve the issue.
ReplyDelete