Not much of a turn-out - no doubt because of the weather. The river had subsided by at least two feet, making much of the park accessible again, but Fingers remained high, with the path by the steps needing good wellies! Even in wellies, one couldn't make the crescent circuit. Reliably, Fingers was emptying back into the navigation channel.
31 Lapwing blogging; we saw them twice; and a male Sparr!. Finding a singing Chiff on the spit was very pleasing. About 6 Little Grebes swimming in the murky waters of 'lilypads'. Just the one Great Spot. The Grey Herons totalled 7 in all, with 2 breeding adults, 2 non-breeding adults (3CY?) and the rest 'real immatures'. Kingsmead was very "watchable" - a party of 100+ Rooks dominated the Crows, with maybe 50 Jackdaws admixed. 22 Starlings gave a good performance. Small birds yielded up 3 or more Mipits and well over 50 Pied Wagtails. 12 Magpies were being a pest.
We had a look at the progress of the new Meadow Lane diggings, but nothing doing (birdwise). There were 3 well spaced Song Thrushes belting out their claim to various parts of the park on our return. The main lake held the usual numbers of Pochard (c.160), Tufted (c.10), Shoveler (c.24), Swans (c.30) & GC Grebes (c.12). Overall concensus = very quiet generally, but well worth the effort ... and it was mild. So mild of late, the Blackthorn is ready to bud-burst!
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