Saturday, January 26, 2013
Saturday 26/01/2013
Still a lot of ice and snow around the park this morning making the going treacherous. DK and JA were already scanning the ducks on the main lake and had found a lovely male Pintail in the mix. Also plenty of Wigeon along with Gadwalls, Tufted Ducks, Pochards and a handful of Shoveler. I slipped and slid my way over to join them and as I watched the Pintail a couple of Teal flew in to join the party. Mute Swans and Coots were also present and I heard a Kingfisher call in the north west corner of the main lake and later on we had three in the south west corner!
Not much else to get excited about, a few Redwings and the odd Fieldfare about and quite a lot of Wildfowl on 100 Acre. The Collared Dove is still on the nest at the Kissing Gate and we saw another collecting nest material behind the Sailing club.
There was a single Great Crested Grebe on the river by the STW bridge which is quite unusual. It might be the one from the Finger Lakes which is still completely frozen over.
It's the next guided walk tomorrow so hopefully all the ice will melt with the rising temperature over night and the rain. Meet at the visitor centre at 9am.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Update from the park
Last weekend was the latest of the monthly volunteer tasks and what a great turnout we had. I guess everyone was burning off the Christmas excess! Anyway we were back in the plantation we started work on in December and with all the extra hands we managed to clear nearly all of it and remove the old fence so a job well done by everybody.
On the bird front it's been pretty quiet with the usual suspects around. A Common Buzzard has been seen quite regularly and we speculate that it is roosting in the park somewhere. The usual over wintering ducks are present in average numbers, hopefully the forecast cold snap this week will encourage a few more into the park. This weekend just gone we had zero Shovelers on Saturday morning which is quite unusual, there have been a small number of Shovelers on Fingers most mornings.
DK had a male Goosander show up one day during the week. Lapwings are a regular sight flying over the park, moving between Willington and Fenlake, or further afield.
On Saturday there were at least 6 Little Grebes on Fingers. Goldcrests, Treecreepers Siskins and Lesser Redpolls were also seen around the park.
A Collared Dove pair have a nest near the Kissing Gate so it will be interesting to see if they manage to keep it going during the cold snap. They may be wishing they had waited a bit longer!
On the bird front it's been pretty quiet with the usual suspects around. A Common Buzzard has been seen quite regularly and we speculate that it is roosting in the park somewhere. The usual over wintering ducks are present in average numbers, hopefully the forecast cold snap this week will encourage a few more into the park. This weekend just gone we had zero Shovelers on Saturday morning which is quite unusual, there have been a small number of Shovelers on Fingers most mornings.
DK had a male Goosander show up one day during the week. Lapwings are a regular sight flying over the park, moving between Willington and Fenlake, or further afield.
On Saturday there were at least 6 Little Grebes on Fingers. Goldcrests, Treecreepers Siskins and Lesser Redpolls were also seen around the park.
A Collared Dove pair have a nest near the Kissing Gate so it will be interesting to see if they manage to keep it going during the cold snap. They may be wishing they had waited a bit longer!
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
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