Waterbirds in the UK 2012/13.

The above report arrived yesterday and holds a fascinating array of articles associated with waterbirds. As usual it is produced to a high quality, contains some fine photographs and is packed full of information.

Access to this and much , much more can be obtained from www.bto.org/webs-reporting and copies can be downloaded from www.bto.org/webs-publications site. Each page or double page holds an account of a particular species or an aspect of waterbird monitoring plus there is a more extended treatment on the current contribution that gravel pits play in terms of "hosting" waterbirds. But there's more, much more and it certainly is deserving of anyone's time if they have an interest in waterbirds.

Whilst I'm not going to undermine its appeal by revealing full details of its total contents there's some pretty impactive conclusions set out which are derived from the WeBS Count data.

• Shelduck index dropped to its lowest level for forty years
• an August count of 127 Garganey at the Ouse Washes was unprecedented
• the winter population of Great Crested Grebe has declined by 25% in ten years
• Little Grebe has also shown marked short term declines 
• Gadwall has tripled its population in 25 years
• numbers of Redshank are at their lowest point for 30 years

And so it goes on.   "Pink-footed Geese....have there numbers stopped increasing ?"  " Non-native waterbirds in the UK" and even a short piece, which I found quite fascinating, entitled "The Arctic Breeding Season". So, whatever your personal interest is with waterbirds , please take a look and remember that on the " WeBs reporting" section of the website there's a lot more data and information ranging from Species Trends, Site Tables for all Species and WeBS Alerts.

Well done to BTO and the supporting partners for WeBS, the JNCC, RSPB and WWT !!