1st and 2nd March 2014

A couple of early starts this weekend so I managed to catch the Little Egrets still at roost in the Finger Lakes, 11 on Saturday and 12 on Sunday. We had Water Rail on both mornings in the Crescent reed bed but I had a very nice view this morning as one moved through a thinner section of reeds and stopped to call. Amazing how it sounds like multiple birds calling, although many birds seem to have this ability. Many times I'm looking around for a flock and a single individual of a species flies over calling!

100 Acre is still the place to be for birds. The migratory waders are starting to arrive so Oystercatchers and Redshanks are now around. The presumed escapee Black-winged Stilt seems to be spending some time over here now, having been at Willington GP for the last few weeks. There are still plenty of Wigeon with ~200 found on Saturday morning, and most of the other duck species can be found here. A pair of Great Crested Grebes were displaying on Saturday and Little Grebes are also to be found on most of the pools. Lapwings are still around in good numbers but Golden Plovers are harder to come by now with the really big locks seemingly moved on. We also had a Common Buzzard along the river past Waitrose and a couple of Jays here to, the first for some time in the area.

These are just the highlights of a great couple of mornings birding in and around the park.

Today it was another volunteer day in the park and we managed to coppice a couple of sections of Willow along the main path despite the water haven risen significantly over night making access a little tricky in places. Then we moved around to the main lake hide and tidied up the bank behind the reed bed and continued with the thinning work in the plantation behind the hide. All in all a good days work so thanks as always to all the volunteers who turned out today. 

Following are a few pictures from this weekend in the park and on 100 Acre:

Greylag Geese over 100 Acre

Black-winged Stilt on 100 Acre (Presumed escapee)

Black-winged Stilt on 100 Acre (Presumed escapee)

Black-winged Stilt on 100 Acre (Presumed escapee)

Common Buzzard getting a hard time from the local Gulls

Common Buzzard over 100 Acre

Common Buzzard (Finger Lakes)

Common Buzzard displaying (Finger Lakes)

Gadwall (m) - Check out that plumage, stunning!

Shoveler (m) - Not a bad looker either!

Tuesday 23rd April

Another day off to help the Rangers oiling the Canada Goose eggs. More on that later, as usual I got to the park early to have a look around. Nothing outstanding to report although a Common Sandpiper on the Beach was nice to see. Did have a couple of Gadwall oddities:

The bird I was focussed on is at the back in the first picture and the front in the second. You'll note the missing black rear end. The flank is also showing a smaller grey area than it should but other features appear to be standard. The white speculum and black and chestnut in the upper wing were all present. Having looked at pictures today it might be just that the bird is moving into eclipse plumage a bit early.

Also looking at the pictures the other bird in the top picture which is also at the back in the second picture is showing strange colouration on the head, again other features are standard male Gadwall.

If anyone would like to comment I'd be glad to hear views on these 2 birds.

Back to the egg oiling. We revisited the main lake island which the rangers first did a couple of weeks ago. It was a bit of an eye opener after last week gentle introduction to egg oiling. several of these birds were very feisty indeed and having Rangers Danny and Nicky fending them off, while myself and volunteer Alan did the recording and oiling, was a welcome shield!

This visit we located 22 nests and oiled 86 new eggs.

In the afternoon we revisited the Finger Lakes. It's quite tricky getting to some of the nests on the spits where you don't have room to get on land without shifting the geese first. One particular pair gave me a couple of good whacks as I tried to fend them off and give Alan time to get off the boat to help me.

Despite lots of searching we found just 1 new nest with 4 eggs and an old nest with a couple of new eggs. We did also come across a young Muntjac which got a bit fed up with us invading its spit. It would move and we would check the Spit and then move to the one where it had moved to. Evetually it got the hint and moved to the area we had already checked.

We spotted another Terrapin sunning itself around the back of Fingers and there were some really good sized Carp cruising around on West Fingers.
 
The rest of the egg oiling stats so far are as follows:

Second visit, Boating lake 4 nests 10 eggs
Great Ouse from Kempston down to the boatslide: 5 nests 30 eggs.
First visit, main lake 16 nests and 92 eggs
First visit, Finger lakes 3 nests 16 eggs
First visit, Boating lake 5 nests 30 eggs


So a total of 270 eggs oiled so far this year. The Rangers will continue visiting the various sites over the coming weeks until the birds give up and abandon the nests.

Saturday 13/04/2013

Another dawn start but no Otter again. It was a beautiful start to the day though. An Oystercatcher was on the New Meadow when I arrived but flew as I walked along the main path.

Sunrise over the New Meadow

I set up along the Spit again and the light was great early on. I'd already seen a Water Rail in the Crescent and a party of 8 Redwings dropped into the tops of the Willows over by the Dead Seat, before departing towards the main lake.

4 Little Grebes were showing across the far side of west Fingers and a couple of them came a little closer allowing this shot of the 2 together.

Little Grebes

Up to 5 Gadwalls were on west Fingers although not particularly close this male looked good in the light.

Male Gadwall

A couple of Grey Herons flew past and I managed to capture one of them.

Grey Heron

DK and JA arrived and with DK's reports of new arrivals all week I was hoping for a bumper birding morning as we set off around the park. I'd already had 4 Chiffchaffs and we bagged a few more on our circuit. Blackcaps were a bit slow in coming but we found at least 3 in the Long Hedge by the Woodland Walk. A Willow Warbler was heard further along and we found 3 further along by the Kissing Gate.

On to 100 Acre and a quiet start with a couple of Teal on the small lake but we did a circuit hoping for a few waders and DK told us he had been seeing Red Kites over there during the past week. A couple of Lapwings were first up displaying over the big lake and they were joined by a couple more and a couple of Redshanks. There were a few Wigeons, Tufted Ducks, Little Grebes and a couple of Great Crested Grebes on there also.

Oystercatcher

Plenty of Skylarks are around so it would be good if dog walkers would stick to the well used trails and keep there dogs under close control as these and other birds are likely to be nesting on the ground soon. A couple more Redshanks were found and a Little Egret was spotted flying towards Willington Gravel Pits. We flushed a Snipe and an Oystercatcher gave us a nice fly past. A Kingfisher flew across the cycle track as we passed the STW.

Back in the park we had four Common Buzzards on a thermal over Kings Mead drifting north west. More Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs were seen and heard. Along the south side of the main lake we came across a male Blackcap and then another which turned into a group of 6, males and females. A Common Tern was passing up and down the south side of the main lake and another was over the Marina.

As we walked up the west side of the lake 3 Sand Martins came in from the west, the only Hirundines we had all morning. A Greenfinch was singing in the north west corner.

So I managed to bag a few migrants that I hadn't seen yet but there are still plenty more. 100 Acre is looking really good and hopefully I'll take the guided walk over there in a couple of weeks time.

Priory Volunteers 07/04/2013

I made another early start in the park today in the hope of seeing the Otter again. Someone else had the same idea and beat me to my favoured spot so I set up half way along the Spit. It was much colder this morning than yesterday, -2°C and still dropping.

A single Lesser Redpoll showed well along the main lake reed bed by the Steps. There were at least 6 Little Egrets in the Roost this morning on west Fingers and a Water Rail in the Crescent. 10 Fieldfares passed over, west.

Less cloud meant better light as the sun came up, not just a five minute gap like yesterday. Unfortunately the Otter didn't show and the Great Crested Grebe kept its distance. A pair of Gadwalls were the only things to keep me interested.

Great Crested Grebe

Male Gadwall

This male Gadwall can easily be overlooked but look closely and you see some exquisite plumage and the golden light this morning helps as well!

The female Sparrowhawk was near the nest at Kramer hide. I think this will be a project for me throughout the year assuming the nesting goes well. At the moment both birds are staying over the back towards the nest and there are a lot of small branches in the way for photography. Hopefully we'll see them on the more open perches as time goes on.

Female Sparrowhawk

After the early morning rounds I joined the volunteer group to open up the fence around the Rough ready for it to be fixed/replaced. Another great turnout of volunteers so we managed to complete the entire task in record time. Great work everyone, see you next month.