After the rain last week a complete change this week with a beautiful bright clear morning. It was quite cold, especially in the breeze, with signs of a frost in the more sheltered areas. Early on there a number of high flying flocks of wood pigeon through south, totalling over a hundred birds. Small parties of Redwing were blogging about around the finger lakes and several Skylarks passed over south in ones and twos.
It was hard work getting any ducks this morning with west fingers virtually empty excepting a handful of Mallards, a number of Moorhen and a single Little Grebe. At Kramer hide we had good views of a Kingfisher, two Little Grebe and three Teal (2m1f).
On the canoe slalom we had Pied and Grey Wagtail and back at the main lake hide we had a pair of Gadwall and a female Tufted Duck. Coot numbers were around 30, all on the south side while Great Crested Grebes numbered in excess of 20 and were widespread around the lake.
Goldfinch numbers were high with many heard and seen including a party of 13 at the beach. 4 Bullfinch were seen in the scrub opposite the visitor centre.
EN and Ed caught a young male Sparrowhawk in the rough. There were also a couple of reports of Otters around the finger lakes in recent weeks.
Fenlake now has a splash of water and had attracted quite a good number of Gulls this morning.
Forgot to mention the Mink which I watched at the north east end of the main lake as it climbed up into one of the small willows. Not sure who was watching who but it eventually slipped away unseen until a little further along the reed bed a Moorhen made a bit of a commotion as, presumably, the Mink passed by.
