Saturday 1st November

A bright cold start quickly deteriorated to drizzle then rain. Cormorants were already arriving in numbers when I arrived and Great Crested Grebes now number 20+. A Goldeneye was also on the main lake.

At Kramer hide it was fairly quiet with mainly Moorhens providing the entertainment. Some Teal calls from East or West Fingers betrayed their presence and later 3 Teal (1m2f) showed up on Kramer. Later in the morning we counted at least 6 Teal with several males in various phases of eclipse plumage.

Having left the hide I headed back towards the Beach and met up with John. There were a large number of Cormorant feeding close in at the Beach which were flushed by a dog giving a reasonable chance at counting them. We both came to counts in the mid 60's with John on 63 and me on 65. Pity the poor fish in the lake if there are any left!

Back on Fingers no Gadwall and just a pair of Shoveler but at least 3 Little Grebe on East Fingers. The Mute Swans were doing their flying training again on East Fingers and had made it onto the main lake later in the morning.

A couple of Grey Wagtails were on the Canoe Slalom. Kingfisher were prominent again this week with several sightings throughout the morning. Several small groups of Redwing and Fieldfare moved through during the morning with the largest flock being 22 Fieldfare.

Ringing session 27th Oct

Fifty birds today - but not the Blackcap; that disappeared past the nets towards the steps.

The tally was as follows: Dunnock 2, Redwing 2 (both adults), Goldcrest 1, Blue Tit 14 (2 birds from the boxes and 6 new birds), Gt. Tit 2, LT Tit 2, Greenfinch 16 (14 were 1CY, and only 4 were females; as usual, no re-traps), Goldfinch 3, Bullfinch 3 and a new species for us here - a Siskin. 33 were new birds.

1st calendar year male Siskin, 27-10-08