Saturday 13th August 2011

A miserable morning, grey and overcast with drizzle, heavy at times. As is often the case in this sort of weather the Sand Martins were feeding over the main lake, numbers increasing throughout the morning with a peak count in the mid 60's. At least one House Martin was in the mix. The usual 35 Mute Swans were on the main lake along with 45 Coots and 23 Great Crested Grebes.

On Fingers the female Shoveler was present again. The Mute Swan family were cruising around and a few Mallards were also present. A single noisy young Moorhen was being fed by one of the adults, no other youngsters were seen.

Still a few Warblers about with at least one Willow Warbler and several Chiffchaffs, including one singing individual on the south east side of the main lake. Plenty of Reed Warblers flitting between the reeds and the Willows. I didn't venture into the Rough today as it seemed pretty quiet, the same being said for the walk from there to the Sedgewick seat.

14 Cormorants were in the trees on the far side of Kingsmead, a couple of Herons were also on Kingsmead and a couple of Green Woodpeckers flew across towards the Cormorants followed by a noisy get together. A Kingfisher was also heard across the other side of Kingsmead further up stream.

Half a dozen Goldfinch kept me company along the west side of the main lake with the odd Dunnock and Robin putting in an appearance.

Just a handful of Canada Geese on the main lake this morning and about 14 Common Terns. When I arrived back at the VC 3 Swifts were buzzing about overhead.

Sunday 7th August - Volunteer Task

The volunteer task today was building a couple of new benches along the New Cut. The hard work was the digging of the holes and getting the posts level after which fixing the top was a piece of cake. Both benches were finished off by lunchtime so it was an early finish for most. I volunteered to carry out a bit of litter picking in the afternoon and filled a couple of sacks in under 2 hours. It never ceases to amaze me that some people seem incapable of disposing of their litter responsibly. The rangers can spend anything up to half their working day picking up litter, time that could be spent on more useful tasks around the park. So remember to either dispose of your litter in the bins provided or even take it home and recycle it, it's not that difficult is it? Also remember why you visit the park in the first place, I bet you wouldn't visit if it resembled a landfill and, believe me, it wouldn't take long to get that way if the Rangers weren't clearing up after you all.

Please look after our park.