New Years Eve

Spent a couple of hours in Kramer hide this morning. While there I saw a couple of Sparrowhawks displaying over the Finger Lakes. Approx. 35 Teals dropped in and 11 of those showed well opposite the hide. There were at least 3m and 6f Shovelers showing on and off and I heard a Bullfinch and a Treecreeper somewhere close by.  The Kingfisher paid several visits but did not use the new perch so I had to make do with a much maligned subject:



This Cormorant spent quite a while fishing in front of the hide.



It even had a bit of salad with its fish. There is a fish in there if you look closely.



And finally it departed.

Mallard

The Mallard is another subject often taken for granted, what a beauty:

Aberrant Blackbird

And on my way back to the car I spotted this guy, an aberrant Blackbird. Unfortunately I couldn't get too close so just a record shot. It also had white patches on it's underside.

Sunday 29th December - Guided Walk

It was the final guided bird walk of the year this morning and what a great turnout we had despite the cold. The 3 Black Swans which had been spotted briefly the previous morning were back on the main lake. The early birds got a good view of them before they went behind the island. The later arrivals had to make do with more distant views as they headed towards the east end of the lake. I had hoped to catch up with them at that end of the lake but was we set off along the main path I spotted them, out of the corner of my eye, as they flew over the trees at the south west corner.

We cut across the meadow and over to the north side of the Finger lakes on the lookout for Bullfinches. They didn't let me down with one calling from the Rough and then more calls from the Sheep Pen and finally reasonable views of a female high in the Poplars in the Sheep Pen.

We continued on over to 100 Acre getting great views of a couple of Long-tailed Tits in the trees along side the cycle track. On 100 Acre we cut down the east side of the big lake getting good views of Gadwall, Teal, Wigeon and Little Grebe, amongst the many wild fowl on and around the big lake. A Common Buzzard also flew across the lake and a couple of Snipe flew over the island.

We followed the trail as it turned towards the crop fields and were just in time to see a large flock of Lapwings put up by a dog and owner. We also had a couple of small flocks of Golden Plover fly over and they looked spectacular as they turned and the sun glinted off them, resembling glitter falling in the sky.

Another Snipe was put up from the rough ground at the north side of the crop fields and many of the Lapwings had set down in the crop field. There seemed to be no Golden Plovers here though, one of the few times in recent weeks when there haven't been any to see here.

One of the group found a couple of Fieldfares feeding with a mixed flock of Starlings and Skylarks and everyone managed to get good views through the scopes.

We gathered together overlooking the Castle Mill workings and scanned the small area of standing water for interesting birds. A couple of Redshanks were the highlight here. A Lesser Black-backed Gull was also on the water and a large flock of Linnets was roving about feeding in the area. A Green Woodpecker flew to the tree in this section and we managed to get reasonable views before it flew off towards the bypass.

Heading back to the park we stopped briefly at the end of Meadow Lane and had a quick chat about the Chiffchaffs which have been present here in recent days. Unfortunately we didn't see any today but it's well worth wandering along Meadow Lane as there are often mixed flocks of Tits and Finches with the odd Goldcrest in the mix, as well as the Chiffchaffs, if they stick around.

We headed back into the park cutting across the meadows and back to the car park and the end of the walk. Quite a successful morning with plenty of species seen and we managed to avoid the flood water around the park. The worst of the flooding has receded for the moment but with more rain forecast this week don't put your wellies away just yet.

The next guided bird walk is Sunday 26th January at 9am, meet outside of the visitor centre as normal.  

Christmas Eve - After the storm

Awoke to a surprisingly dry morning so headed off down to the park first thing. It was still quite windy and very mild. The ground is saturated so if you are paying a visit make sure you have waterproof footwear and avoid trying out your brand new trainers down here tomorrow unless you really don't like them!

Met up with DK again and we went down to check out the Little Egret roost but could only find 3, a bit disappointing after the 12 we had yesterday morning.

Once again we failed to find the Shag which was first spotted on Sunday morning but we met up with TP who said he had seen the bird the previous day in the north east corner of the main lake. I think everybody else who came down yesterday failed to find it myself and DK included.

We found half a dozen Shoveler on Fingers including 2 males. There were also at least 2 Little Grebes a and a single male Gadwall. Most of the ducks now seem to be on the main lake. We had a small party of Wigeon over north east early on.

On the main lake there were 13 Pochards, 28 Tufted Ducks and 20 Gadwalls. There were also 2 more Little Grebes.

Those were the highlights in the park but I popped down to Meadow Lane afterwards and located a nice mixed flock of Tits, Chiffchaffs and this Goldcrest:

Goldcrest

It was a male as I could see some orange/red in the crest in one of the other photographs.

There were at least 2 Chiffchaffs along Meadow Lane and a third along the the cycle track between the STW and Meadow Lane. This last bird looked quite grey initially but it didn't stick around long so I didn't get a chance to look at it closely. All the Chiffy calls I heard today were the normal one.

Earlier we had seen good size flocks of Golden Plovers and Lapwings over 100 Acre so I popped down to the crop fields by the bypass and found ~500 Golden Plovers and ~200 Lapwings. There was a Kestrel over 100 Acre when I made my way back along the cycle track to my car.

There is a guided bird walk, weather permitting, on Sunday 29th December. Meet at the visitor centre at 9am. Weather forecast looks OK at the moment so finger crossed for a nice mornings birding.