Species Account
Extract from Bird Report 2024
Common winter visitor and passage migrant. Included in 15.6% of BirdTrack lists. (Red list).
The highest counts were all from the Stewartby Lake winter roost. In the first winter period there were 3,000 on 6th January, a county record count of 6,500 on 20th January and again over 6,000 on 24th February. In the second winter period there were 2,000 there on 20th December and again on the 30th, and then 800 on the last day of the year.
Elsewhere, there were a series of high counts at Grovebury SP, with 880 on 24th January, 800 on 19th February, 1,120 on 20th February, culminating in 1,600 on 20th March.
There were daily records through to early April when reports tailed off , with then three records in May and one in June. A slow increase saw seven records in July, 15 records in August, almost daily in September and daily from October until the end of the year. A lack of access meant that there were no counts from Brogborough Lake.
