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GOOSANDER ROOST SURVEY
Coordinated Counts - February 2011
The February counts took place on Saturday evening and Sunday morning February 12th and 13th. Happily,
counters were favoured with much more suitable weather conditions compared to December so none of the waters
were affected by ice!
The following waters were visited at dusk or, where stated, for dawn or were checked in advance for roosting birds:
- Acre Nook - 75 birds were present at dusk, 27 drakes and 48 redheads. A party of 12 flew off heading north
well before dark, they may have been amongst the birds which came in to roost later.
- Bar Mere - 33 birds roosted here, 5 drakes and 28 redheads.
- Bosley Reservoir - was not visited on the coordinated count days but no birds had roosted on the previous
two evenings.
- Combermere - no birds roosted but there was shooting nearby.
- Congleton - one bird has been present with Mallards on the River Dane in the centre of Congleton for much
of the winter and almost certainly roosts there.
- Disley area reservoirs - Horse Coppice held 13 birds, 3 drakes and 10 redheads while Bollinhurst had 2
birds, a drake and a redhead.
- Lamaload Reservoir - 7 birds roosted, 2 drakes and five redheads.
- Macclesfield Forest reservoirs - were not visited on the days of the coordinated counts. However, there
have been fairly frequent visits by birders with no suggestion that birds have roosted.
- Poynton Pool - was not visited on the days of the coordinated counts. However, there have been fairly
frequent visits by birders with no suggestion that birds have roosted.
- Radnor Mere - 9 birds (4 drakes, 5 redheads) flew off north just before 4pm.
- Rostherne Mere - was visited for dawn on the Sunday and 22 birds were present, 8 drakes and 14 redheads.
- Sandbach Flashes - 13 Goosanders roosted.
- Styperson Pool - one redhead was present late afternoon but flew off just before dark..
Although a coordinated roost count was attempted, and good coverage achieved, in December 2010, the fact that
many still-waters were completely, or almost completely, iced over meant they were unavailable for Goosanders to
roost at. So the February coordinated counts give the most complete picture yet of the numbers and distribution of
Goosanders roosting in Cheshire. The total known to be roosting over the night of February 12th and 13th is 166 birds.
This exceeds the previous maximum of 133, from just two sites, on the evening of 6th February 2010 (see Bird News
No 84, Nov 2010).
Importantly, the count from Bar Mere is the first count of roosting birds in south Cheshire since 9th February
2003 when 11 were reported from Hurleston Reservoir. At one time, waters in the south of the county were the centre
of the wintering Goosander population in Cheshire but from about 1990 waters in the east of Cheshire have held the
largest numbers. It is not clear whether the lack of records of roosting birds from the south of Cheshire is due to
under-reporting. Hopefully southern waters will be checked, at least occasionally, at dusk in future winters.
A very big 'thank you' is due to the counters: Bob Anderson, Steve & Gill Barber, Irene Blagden, Richard Blindell,
Jack Canovan, David Cookson, Mark Eddowes, Andy Firth, Richard Gabb, Hugh Pulsford, Ray Scally and Tina Thorley.
If anyone has additional information regarding roosting Goosanders please contact
Steve Barber
February 2011
on behalf of CAWOS Monitoring & Surveying sub-committee
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