Woke to glorious sun, arrived at the park at 07:30 to find thick fog. Couldn't see the island in the middle of the main lake! Unusually a number of Mute Swans were assembled on the grass at the sailing club, a later count numbered at least 55 on the main lake alone. There were still ~17 at the sailing club despite the activity of a number of youngsters preparing for some canoeing.
After a quiet week the birds seemed to be singing much more this morning although this may have been due to the fog which always seems to cause sound to carry much further. Along the main path as I approached the Rough on the left a Lesser Whitethroat was heard, several more bursts of song followed. I continued and met up with JA along the Spit. There was no sign of any of the Coot chicks and very little activity of any kind on Fingers.
A Sedge Warbler was singing on the south east corner of Fingers and a distant male Cuckoo was heard (possibly along the Cut). This got closer as we headed north along the navigation channel and we finally caught up with it along the Woodland walk as we headed back towards Fingers. A female was also heard and seen as it flew up out of the low cover alongside the Woodland walk.
We caught up with EN in the Rough doing his solo CES session. He'd had a singing Turtle Dove earlier in the morning. Garden Warblers were burbling away as we chatted and a couple of Bullfinches flew in. EN had juvenile Chaffinch while we were there but it was a slow morning generally, the fog not helping.
The fog was clearing as we left the Rough with sun breaking through. A number of Reed Warblers were singing in the main lake reed bed along with those in the crescent. A Sedge Warbler had sneaked past the Reed Warblers and was singing from the north east corner of the main lake. No sign of a Grey Wagtail along the Canoe Slalom this week and nothing out of the ordinary along the river to Fenlake. Very difficult to see anything, on Fenlake, through the vegetation but there was still some water over there despite the prolonged dry spell.
Back to the main lake I checked out my handy work from the May volunteer day, the steps down to the fishing swims, which were still looking nice and solid. We counted the Swans on the south side of the island before finalising the count from the north side for the count above. JA spotted 3 Coot chicks on the nest in the north west corner. They were being fed by one of the adults. Another 2 chicks joined them followed by the other adult.
By now it was a fine sunny morning, just in time for us to depart.
