Saturday 22nd August

The highlight of Saturday morning was an Otter on the main lake. Found by DK and JA, who thoughtfully gave me a call so I could see the animal as well, it spent 20-30 mins out in the middle of the lake, east of the island, just fishing. In the end we left just as it headed off to the south east corner of the lake.

Record shot of the Otter

EG and DH were ringing in the Rough and catching reasonable numbers while we were there. Plenty of Blackcaps in the catch and the odd surprise.

Green Woodpecker (moulting everything!)

A Goldcrest and a Common Whitethroat were a couple of the other ringing highlights.

It was a good morning for Raptors with Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard and a distant Hobby all seen. We watched the Kestrel dive into a Willow and JA watched it feeding on a Dragonfly. It never ceases to amaze me how good their vision must be. It was across the other side of the river when it must have spotted the Dragonfly on a branch in the Willow!

A Common Sandpiper was heard on 100 Acre and along with a couple of Little Egrets was the highlight of that area.

As always at this time of year there are large areas of the park where it is quiet and then you come across a mixed flock of tits and warblers feeding in a particular tree and you might get 20-30 birds or more in a tiny area.

Sunday I went back to my Little Grebe spot on 100 Acre and was surprised to find they have finally hatched a chick. It's getting quite late in the year so hopefully the weather will hold up to give this little fellow a chance. Here a few pictures. (click for a full size version).

Adult (chick is on it's back hidden under the wings)

Chick peeking over the adults shoulder

Chick eating a small fish

Chick eating a Blue-tailed damselfly

Join us on Sunday morning (30th) for the next guided bird walk. Meet at 8am outside the visitor centre.

A very foggy morning.

It was very foggy this morning, the main lake island was just peeking through the gloom as we left the park mid morning. I was first to arrive today, not a single car in the car park, but JA and DK arrived a little later. I managed to glimpse the main lake swans mating, followed by their post mating dance, through the fog, always beautiful to see.

Mute Swans mating dance

While watching a female Reed Bunting in the Crescent I heard the groaning and squealing of a Water Rail in the reed bed.

Reed bunting (f)

5 Gadwalls were on Fingers and the pair of Great Crested Grebes were nest building.Chiffchaffs were singing in the Rough and at the end of the Spit.

Having met up with JA and DK we headed to Kramer hide where we managed to make out at least 3 Teal through the fog. The Mute Swans were at the nest doing a bit of maintenance. Next stop was the STW bridge where we had at least one Kingfisher and a pair of Grey Wagtails.

Back in the Rough we had a Blackcap singing over on the west side and at the Canoe Slalom we found another? Grey Wagtail.

A few more singing Chiffchaffs as we made our way around the park and we were back at the car park. Not a great deal to see in the fog, it was all about using your ears today. Forecast looks similar for the guided walk tomorrow. Meet outside the visitor centre at 9am BST. (Don't forget the clocks go forward tonight).

After Priory I headed up to Mowsbury Hillfort NR where I had at least 2 Chiffchaffs singing, 3 Mistle Thrushes, Yellowhammer and displaying Lapwings and this obliging Green Woodpecker.

Green Woodpecker

 

Bird Ringing - CES Visit 4 - 05/06/11

CES VISIT 4 today 05/06/11: 47 birds of 14 species (retraps in brackets)

Robin 4 (0) - all juveniles
Blackbird 0 (1) - fledged last year and a regular
Whitethroat 4 (0) - 3 juveniles and an adult
Chiff Chaff 5 (0) - 3 juveniles, 2 adults
Garden Warbler 1 (1) - adults of both sexes
Blackcap 5 (0) - 3 juveniles, 2 adult males
Great Tit 2 (0) - both juveniles
Blue Tit 13 (0) - 9 juveniles, 4 adults (including one in moult)
Chaffinch 2 (0) - 1 juvenile and one adult male
Dunnock 1 (2) - one juvenile and the retraps were adults
Wren 0 (1) - fledged last year
Long Tailed Tits 3 (0) - 3 juveniles
Coal Tit 1 (0) - a juvenile and only the second of this species ringed at Priory
Green Woodpecker 1 (0) - an adult male

Very good totals for this site.



Above: This juvenile Coal Tit is only the 2nd bird of this species ringed here (the first being in September 2010).



Above: A Green Woodpecker (my bird of the day).

For more info (including more photographs) of these birds and other sessions, please click here.