Bosherston Lakes seemed very quiet this morning. Several gadwall and a few wigeon were present at the top end of the Upper Eastern Arm but coot numbers were still extremely low. There were no obvious diving ducks - three tufted ducks there last week had seemingly moved on. Pochards are hardly seen there these days.
There was no obvious goldeneye presence in the Central/Western Arms where in the past 20-30 were often present by early December. However, as shown in the graph below, monthly winter WeBS max. count records indicate that numbers there were also low in the late 1960s-early 1970s when more systematic counts started there. It isn't known if this species was possibly under-recorded in the early years.
However, there were nine goosanders on the Lower Eastern Arm - one adult male and eight female/immature types. Their over-wintering population will probably be increasing during the coming weeks.
