At the end of last year I began volunteering alongside a local birder for the monthly BTO wetland bird survey. Our patch, which runs around our farm at the Naze, covers a roughly 7 mile walk around the peninsula, trekking firstly up the beach alongside the salt marsh towards Stone Point and then back to the farm and around the sea wall. This month’s count took place on Sunday, which was about as wet as it is today (lots of rain and even some sleet and snow at times!). As a result we were the only people out on the day. We counted the following:
Bird Count 21 Jan 2018
| Greylag | 35 |
| Brent Goose | c.500 (Mostly on Walton Hall Marsh 2:15pm) |
| Pink footed Goose | c.100 |
| Canada Goose | 1 |
| Mallard | 2 |
| Wigeon | c.40 |
| Teal | c.40 |
| Gadwall | c.25 |
| Shoveler | 16 |
| Shelduck | 4 |
| Little Egret | 1 |
| Lapwing | 4 |
| Ringed Plover | 7 |
| Grey Plover | 16 |
| Avocet | 3 |
| Oystercatcher | 7 |
| Bar tailed Godwit | 8 |
| Black tailed Godwit | 4 |
| Dunlin | c.75 |
| Redshank | 20 |
| Turnstone | 5 |
| Sanderling | 10 |
| Curlew | 3 |
| Cormorant | 1 |
| Black headed Gull | 75 |
| Great Black backed Gull | 2 |
| Herring Gull | 10 |
thinkingcountry.com 
Hi Ben,
Well done you and your friend, WeBS counts are a vital tool in the BTO’s arsenal when it comes to assessing the winter wetland bird populations. Other links to activities encouraging the use of volunteers or studies under the name of citizen science are to be found on my page via the link below.
I hope you don’t mind me dropping this post in here, I’ve also posted up something similar on LinkedIn should you wish to investigate it.
Best Wishes
Tony