Saturday, December 01, 2007

Saturday 1st December

Very windy and quite cold with the windchill. On arrival there were 2 Little Egret in the South East corner of the main lake. I headed down to the Finger lakes and along the spit. There were 2 Shoveller on Lillypads and a further 11 flying around the park. Also on Lillypads there were 5 Little Grebe, 3 Teal (2m) along one of the fingers and the new resident pair of Mute Swans. There were 2 Herons here also.

From the crescent looking across East fingers there were 2 Little Grebe by the spit but by the time I had walked around the east side there were 5. Not sure if some of those had come from the other side of the spit so at least 7 total and possibly 10. There was a possible Water Rail crossing the channel between East Fingers and Kramer lake but it was seen from the crescent in silhouette so not 100% certain, looked to have a long beak though.

At Kramer hide there were 5 more Shoveller (3m2f) although these were probably some of the earlier 11 as the last sight I had of them was dropping in to the area of Kramer hide. There were also 3 Gadwall (2m1f) and the resident Mute Swans had also moved through to this section. There were also 3 Herons, 2 in the usual tree and one on the end of the spit.

Around the back of the finger lakes there were 2 female Shoveller, 1 male Teal and 3 Gadwall (2m1f). There were more Teal calling but I couldn't see them, very vocal though.

There were several Goldfinch in the Rough, chattering away, not sure of numbers though but at least half a dozen, probably more. As I headed towards the steps 2 Herons flew over, one getting some serious attention from a BH Gull.

Heading along the main path a couple of guys said there were 3 Mergansers in the beach corner of the main lake. These turned out to be 3 red head Goosander which were feeding along the edge of the reed bed. Heading past the fishing swims on the east side of the main lake I spooked a Kingfisher which flew low across the water.

A poor quality image of one of the goosanders

At the main lake hide there were 4 Pochard (3m1f). Only counted 34 Great Crested Grebe today but the lake was rough and the Grebe were well spread across the lake making the count difficult. Cormorants numbered 25.

Along the river by the boat club moorings 19 Canada Geese were heading downstream and upstream there were a further 31 Canadas and 2 Mute Swans, an adult and a cygnet.
I headed back towards the main lake and heard a Kingfisher calling from the south west corner. The female Mute Swan with the 2 cygnets seems to have found a new partner and both were preening at the sailing club end of the lake. The 2 cygnets flew in, having had a bit of flight training, and headed over to join the 2 adults.

No sign of the Little Egrets when I left the park.

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