Recent news

It's been fairly quiet in the park these last couple of weeks. There is plenty of stuff to see but no exciting migrants dropping in. There are still Lesser Redpoll around and the odd Goldeneye along with plenty of Redwings and Fieldfares. Goldcrest is another regular on the sightings board and there has been a Chiffchaff hanging around the Crescent end of the Spit.

There is a guided walk on Sunday, meet at the visitor centre at 9am. There should be plenty to see and the forecast is OK at the moment!

Note also that the December guided walk on Sunday the 30th is also at 9am and NOT 8am as advertised around the park.

Sunday 4th November - Volunteers

Locals will have noticed that it was a bit wet on Sunday, however this did not deter the volunteers, 6 of whom splashed around in the main lake attempting to build a new sluice to control the water overflowing at the Beach. During periods of high water, excess water overflows into the navigation channel. The overflow has gradually migrated down the Beach and was cutting away the bank, so the new sluice is being used to control the water and prevent the bank, and nearby path, being eroded.

The first task was to damn up the current outflow to allow us to work without water pouring through. This was easier said than done but we eventually managed to reduce the outflow to a trickle.

Water Vols! (Picture courtesy of Daniel Fellman)

The next step was to get the wood in place bring the bank height back up to the level of the surrounding ground. This wood is all reclaimed from the recent work done by the EA on the river at Cardington Lock. While this was being done half the volunteers started building the first section of the sluice and got that in place, closely followed by the second section.

The last task for the day was to join the sluice and the dam which was completed despite a shortage of nails!

We didn't have time to finish the rest of the sluice, a task for another day, but well done to everyone who turned out on such miserable day.

On the bird front, given the weather it was unsurprising that there was little moving. A Kingfisher was a nice spot by Danny and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over. Of course the wildfowl were very happy, nice weather for ducks as they say!

The new sluice in action later in the week (picture courtesy Daniel Fellman)

Bird of the day

Star bird for the day: Lesser Redpoll. This bird was originally ringed at an, as yet, unknown location:

.

Ringing totals for today consisted of 52 new birds, 10 retraps and 1 control (i.e. originally ringed elsewhere) of 14 speceies. The species totals are as follows (retraps in brackets):

Blackbird 3 (0)
Blue Tit 3 (0)
Bullfinch 5 (0)
Chaffinch 1 (0)
Dunnock 2 (3)
Goldcrest 3 (2)
Goldfinch 9 (0)
Great Tit 2 (1)
Greenfinch 1 (0)
Lesser Redpoll 12 (+ 1 control)
Long Tailed Tit 7 (3)
Reed Bunting 1 (0)
Robin 1 (0)
Wren 2 (1)

The only other ringing records for Lesser Redpoll are nine in 2005 and one in 2007 (all new), hence the star status of the bird pictured above!

Also, at dusk 3 swallows were seen by myself and DK.