Saturday 5th December 2009

We've been so lucky with the weather in recent weeks and once again the forecast rain was nowhere to be seen. At the car park 20+ Magpies flew over, west. There were 6 Tufted Ducks (2f) up by the Sailing Club.

7 Little Grebes

It was a Little Grebe day today with 6 on west fingers, 5 at the south end and 1 further up along one of the fingers. By the time we got to Kramer hide 5 Little Grebe had moved in and a further 2 joined them from the right. At least 1 of the earlier LG's was not present at Kramer Hide as it still had it's summer plumage making it easily identifiable. By the time we made it to the Dead Seat we spotted 2 LG's on west fingers, 1 being the Summer plumage bird. So there could be as many as 13 but probably somewhere between 8 and 13.

Little Grebe

There were still plenty of parties of Redwing blogging about and several parties of Long-tailed Tits. Treecreeper was heard along the navigation channel and in the Willows around Fingers, between the Steps and the Dead Seat.

Long-tailed Tit (one of EN's)

Kingfishers were very active with sightings around Fingers and 2 chasing about outside the main lake hide.

Very few Coot and Great Crested Grebe today although a single GCG had moved onto Fingers. A massive increase in the number of Gulls on the main lake this week with a lot of Common Gulls mixed in with the BHG's.

John had a solitary male Pochard and 2 pairs of Teal after I left.

ED: Forgot the Kestrel over the main lake island and the Sparrowhawk over Fingers.