Saturday 21st January 2012

A rather blustery day, with some drizzle thrown in for good measure. Pochard numbers are up around the 100 mark now on the main lake. Tufted Ducks, Gadwall and Wigeon are still present on the main lake and Coot numbers are still high.

On Fingers a pair of Great-crested Grebes are now in residence, displaying and even a bit of platform building going on this morning. It looked, for a while, like they might mate but the male seemed disinterested while the female lay flat on the platform and they ended up swimming off together and began fishing. There were also 5 Shoveler, at least 4 Teal and three Gadwall in front of Kramer hide. A Little Grebe was also fishing to the left of the hide.

There was a large flock of Geese on 100 Acre, a mix of Canada and Greylag but we were unable to find the  Pinkfoot, reported recently. A flock of about 50 Lapwing took to the air and gave a good display over the large lake. There was also a group of 8 Tufted Ducks on the big lake and a couple of male Wigeon were also spotted.

Back to Fingers and we had 6 Gadwall around the back by the Sedgewick Seat, but little else of note as we cut back through to the main path. The Canoe Slalom came up blank for Grey Wagtail but back at the main lake hide we had good views of the Pochard and Tufted Duck. A Herring Gull was also present as were Black-headed and Common Gulls.

The next stop was the viewpoint across to Fenlake Meadows where we failed to find any Snipe or the Stonechat but were treated to a fly past by a Common Buzzard which settled in one of the larger trees on Fenlake giving good views through the scope.

That was about it with little else of note along the west side of the main lake as we headed back to the car park. Hope the wind drops for next Sundays guided walk.

In the afternoon I joined the volunteers at Putnoe Wood for a bit more coppicing and dead hedging. Mistle Thrush was heard singing and Nuthatch and Treecreeper were present along with various Tits, Robins, Blackbirds and a singing Song Thrush. Just a short, 2 hour session but plenty got done, still plenty to do though.