Saturday 13th January 2007

Flooding in the park is quite extensive today. It's probably unwise to walk across Press Mead at the moment but I did make it through without getting a welly full! Birds were few and far between this morning and the wildfowl counts on the main lake were down from last week:

Pochard 79
Tufted 11
Shoveller 32
Wigeon 25 Over
Goosander Still present

Several pairs of Great Crested Grebes were displaying and getting very territorial.



Had several sightings of kingfishers around the park.



Only one Teal seen on the Finger Lakes and no other ducks other than Mallards but did see a group of 10 Little Grebe!

And finally some pictures of the flooding:

Sunday 7th January 2007

Managed to remain dry for todays visit. Couldn't locate the Goosander today but still good numbers of wildfowl on the main lake:

Pochard 96
Tufted 21
Shoveller 39
Mute Swans 12
Cormorant 27
Coot

Again very little on the Finger Lakes:

4 Gadwall (2 pairs)
1 Teal
5 Little Grebe

Other birds seen were:

Blackcap 1m behind the sailing club.
28 Lapwing over.
1 Grey Wagtail by the canoe slalom.
Great Spotted Woodpecker including 1 drumming around the finger lakes.
Several Green Woodpeckers
Bullfinch
Rook 20+ on Kingsmead.
Several Kingfisher sightings.

Saturday 6th January

Arrived at 08:30 and headed down to the Finger lakes which was very quiet in terms of wildfowl, 2 Shoveller, 2 Gadwall and 4 Teal. However there were Long-tailed Tit flocks, totaling 25-30 individuals, along the spit and around the crescent. Other tits along with a couple of Treecreepers were mixed in with the LTT's. No sight nor sound of the Cettis Warbler. 5 Little Grebe were seen, 3 of which were in front of Kramer hide. 2 Fieldfare over.

The rain started at 09:30 and continued steadily for the rest of the visit.

On the main lake:
94 Pochard
25 Tufted
27 Shoveller
1 Goosander
12 Mute Swan
At least 2 Kingfisher
BH Gull
Common Gull
LBB Gull

Other birds seen were Bullfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Rook (x4 on Kingsmead).