Wednesday, January 14, 2015

10th and 11th January 2015

A brief update from the weekend:

At the weekend the 8 Red-crested Pochard which had arrived on Friday were still around. I am told the males looked great in the sun on the afternoon of Saturday but it was pretty grim in the main lake hide on Saturday morning and just seeing anything was a challenge at times as rain was blown horizontally through the open windows! It was fun watching the lone wind surfer trying to remount his steed as he headed towards the reeds on the north side :-)

A complete change of weather on Sunday morning was welcome. It dawned bright, cold and relatively still, allowing the song birds to be heard. 4 Little Egrets were seen leaving the roost and 16 Corn Buntings left the Crescent Roost just before sun up. A female Goldeneye was on the Finger Lakes first thing.

After a quick look around early on Sunday I joined Jane to help with the clearance work around the Cardington Mill car park. We did some work on a Monday volunteer session before Christmas so I completed the brushcutting and we coppiced and dead hedged by the ditch. Hopefully this will prove popular with users of that car park especially on the dark mornings and evenings this winter, as it is now much more open.

Coming up we have the next guided bird walk on the 25th starting at 9am outside the visitor centre and the Sunday Volunteers meet the following Sunday, 1st February, between 9am and 3pm. It currently says this is the 8th February on the website but I checked with the rangers today who confirmed it is the 1st.