Saturday 12/04/2014

Another great morning in the park with a number of firsts for me for the year. Despite a cold wind this morning and overcast conditions, spring seemed to be in the air with a number of species seen mating including one of the pairs of Mute Swans on the Finger Lakes. I think these are the new pair but Orange 500 and her new mate are still hanging in there. The new pair were also nest building along one of the fingers this morning.

Mute Swan mating dance

The pair of Great Crested Grebes on Fingers were also seen doing the weed dance. There were also at least 3 Treecreepers along the Spit and the resident Common Buzzard was also about, being mobbed by a Crow as usual!

There was also some interesting behaviour from a Grey Heron seen from Kramer hide. There were four Herons in the area but one was obviously in breeding condition showing a lot of orange on its beak and it was moving branches about as if trying to build a nest. Feathers on the neck and crest were erect and there was a lot of bill clacking and sky pointing going on. Here are some pictures unfortunately obscured by branches.

Erect crest and neck feathers

Bill clacking

Sky pointing

There was quite a bit of Oystercatcher activity around the main lake island and it looks like there maybe one sitting on a nest on the island although it was obscured by foliage so we'll have to keep an eye on it. At least we know where we should be looking now.

Oystercatchers over the main lake

One of my year firsts was a singing Sedge Warbler at the STW reed bed. On to 100 Acre and we had the usual array of birds including the Black-winged Stilt which was very mobile this morning, Redshanks, Little Ringed Plovers, Ringed Plovers and Oystercatchers. Another year first was the 3 House Martins in with a group of Sand Martins and Swallows. There was also a White Wagtail but we dipped on Yellow Wagtail which had been seen by AG earlier. A Black Swan was a first for the site, initially on the crop field with 21 Mute Swans and later on the nearby lake.

Black Swan on 100 Acre

There were a lot of Blackcaps around the park this morning but Chiffchaffs seemed less numerous. There were also a handful of Willow Warblers around and when we returned to the Visitor a Common Buzzard passed overhead.

Common Buzzard

Earlier this week I popped down to the park in the evening to see what bats were around. While I was waiting for sun down quite a few Sand Martins came in over Fingers and the main lake, I estimated 60 when they all got up at the west end of the main lake. I was also fortunate to see a Swallow in with the flock over Fingers as I scanned through them with my bins.

I also came across this male Great Spotted Woodpecker in the Crescent.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Also of note were:

2 Shovelers (m) Fingers

5 Little Egrets

1 Oystercatcher

1 Buzzard calling from the Finger Lakes area

The bats showed up around 20:20 and good numbers of Pipistrelles were out and about when I left at 20:50.