Saturday 5th Feb 2011

Very windy this morning so not much in the way of small birds about. The Corvid roost were still about when I arrived, making the most of the windy conditions, tumbling about in the sky. They finally all left at around 07:30. On Fingers had 2 Teal, 5 Gadwall, and 4 Shoveler. A Sparrowhawk flew from the Spit towards the Rough. JA arrived and we headed to Kramer hide where a pair of Bullfinch were in the trees outside.

Canada Geese are beginning to take up territories so the noise level around Fingers has gone up a notch or two. A pair of Great Crested Grebes were present on Fingers, checking out possible nest sites and picking up nest material. At one point the female flattened herself out as if wanting to mate but the male wasn't interested.

We headed up to the STW to check out 100 Acre, a Greenfinch was singing by the Kissing Gate. On 100 Acre there were large numbers of Geese including ~150 Greylags, we also spotted a Pink Footed Goose and conveniently close by an Egyptian Goose. I phoned DK who arrived shortly. It was tough going spotting the Pink Foot which had sat down in the long grass but the Egyptian Goose was now wandering about. We finally got DK onto both birds and thanks to DK for the Greylag count.

On the small lake there were 5 Teal, 2 Gadwall, 3 Tufted Ducks and a Little Grebe. On the large lake a small party of Tufted Ducks and 3 Little Grebe were seen.

Back in the park ~50 Goldfinch in the Alders across the Navigation Channel. A couple of Stock Doves were in with a flock of Wood Pigeons on Kingsmead.

On the main lake 80+ Pochard, at least one pair of Wigeon, plenty of Gadwall spread across the lake. A couple of Little Grebe were on the south side near the hide along with a few Tufted Ducks. A couple of adult Herring Gulls noisily declared their presence on the lake and several pairs of Mute Swans were mirroring each others actions, pair bonding. ~30 Cormorants also present.

A couple of Teal were all we could find on Fenlake and little else of note as we headed back to the car park.

Next Volunteer day Sunday 6th Feb

A typo crept into the Volunteer dates on the right hand side of the page. The date is the 6th of Feb, next Sunday, not the 16th as it did say.