Last week in the park

Had a report from Simon Ramm that "two otters were playing in the gap between the two fingers lakes between 12:45 and 13:30 and longer"  on Monday 1st July.

On Wednesday 3rd July I spent the day with the rangers carrying out a couple of tasks. As usual I arrived early and had a walk around the park. Of note were the hundreds of Froglets that were to be found around the Crescent and along the Spit. The overnight rain had left the grass wet and the tiny Frogs were taking advantage of the conditions. I also had 2 Oystercatchers on the grass by the Canoe Slalom. A Pied Wagtail on the flower meadow. Juv Song Thrush up by the Kissing Gate. 2 Grey Wagtails at the STW bridge and lots of feeding activity in the fallen Willow on the back river. At least 2 red head Blackcaps and a Chiffchaff along with Tits and Finches.

First task of the day was a trip out to the main lake island to check on the breeding success or not of the Common Terns. The plan was to go around the island and if there was no sign of any activity, land to search for nests. As expected there was no activity seen so we landed and fought our way around the island. It's quite amazing how much plant growth has occurred since my last visit for the Canada Goose egg oiling earlier this year. Still we managed to fight our way through and found 3 Tern nests. All of them looked to have been predated as the eggs were smashed rather than neatly opened. We should also have seen evidence of juveniles, if not on the island then at least when they fledged, had they hatched out successfully.

So good and bad news, evidence of breeding but no successful outcome this year. What this does suggest though is that with the correct management the island could become a nesting site for Common Terns. With this in mind the aim is to continue with the bashing back of the vegetation, possibly adding gravel to some areas to provide better nesting conditions for the Terns.

As far as I could see there was no sign of nesting by the Black-headed Gulls despite having seen them moving sticks about on the island. Again we would have seen signs of juvenile Gulls had they already hatched and fledged so they seem not to have been successful this year.

A wander around the park on Saturday morning produced the usual suspects although a bonus Kingfisher in the Crescent was nice as they have been few and far between of late. EG was ringing in the Rough but while we were there he was having a very slow day!

In the afternoon I returned and took a walk around 100 Acre. The good weather had attracted many visitors to the main park but I did not see another soul as I walked around 100 Acre. Of note were:

Redshank 1+

Oyc 2

Kingfisher 1

Sedge Warbler 2+

Common Whitethroat 3+

Common Buzzard 1

Lapwing ~30

Juv BHG 1

Two Pairs of GC Grebe with 2 young each (1pr on big lake and 1pr on Meadow Lane GP)

A few Canadas, 1 pair with 4 young and a pair of Greylags with what looked like a single, almost full grown, youngster

Green Sandpiper 1

I also found a female Emperor Dragonfly:

Emperor Dragonfly (f)

A Dunnock was perched on the STW fence as I made my way back to the car:

Dunnock

Sunday was the monthly Volunteer day and we cracked on with 2 tasks. One group started putting together a Tern raft for the main lake, hopefully an alternate place for the Terns to nest next year. The other group worked on repairs to some of the fishing swims around the main lake. It was extremely hot so thanks to all who came and participated, great job.

The hot weather attracted a lot of people to the park again on Sunday and having assisted Ranger Jane with the litter pick in the morning before the rest of the volunteers arrived I stayed to help with the afternoon round after the rest of the volunteers left. Having seen the good side of people on the volunteer task we now witnessed the bad as people left litter strewn all around. I really can't fathom the mentality of people who come to the park to enjoy the green space and then leave it looking like a landfill. Yes the rangers do pick up the litter but it's not a job that should need doing, we should all take responsibility for our own litter and either bin it or take it home and dispose of it. It's not that hard is it, after all you brought the stuff with you when the packets and bottles were full so taking them away empty should be easier.

Note also that barbecues and open fires are not allowed in the park. The rangers will be forced to extinguish any they find on the go so please don't do it. There is a danger of fire in the dry conditions and also damage to the plastic tables, as happened Saturday evening to the table by Cardington Lock. Yes those tables are recycled plastic and they melt when a hot barbecue is placed on top of them!

Guided Walk - Sunday 30th June

A great turnout for the guided walk on Sunday, 14 including Ranger Jane who came out with us on her day off!

A quick overview of what has been happening in the bird world this month and then we were off around the west side of the main lake stopping briefly for the singing Reed Warbler out front of the visitor centre. Along the west side we had good views of Greenfinch and Goldfinch and there was another Reed Warbler singing in the south west corner reed bed. Several Azure Damselflies were spotted by Chris Smart.

We cut through to the river and stopped over looking the river and Fenlake Meadows. I was hoping for a singing Grasshopper Warbler (Gropper) but all was quiet except for a distant singing Reed Bunting. We continued along the river side and had another stop for the Gropper. Again all quiet on Fenlake but we had both Chiffchaff and Blackcap singing in the hedge behind us. Blackcaps fast became the theme for the day with multiple singing birds found during the walk. We also had good views of several male Banded Demoiselles in the reeds by the river and there was a single Ladybird Larvae .

We cut back into the park on the east side of Press Mead and continued around the east side of the main lake and Fingers. A Cuckoo flew over as we skirted the south east corner of the main lake. There were good views of Coot and Great Crested Grebe on the main lake and yet more Damselflies along the river on the east side of Fingers. This time we had both male and female Banded Demoiselles including a pair in cop. There were a few butterflies showing, mostly Small Tortoiseshells to begin with but we also had Red Admiral, Meadow Brown and Ringlet during the morning.

We moved on to the STW bridge with the hope of locating the juvenile Cuckoo that had been in the area the previous 2 days. I could not hear the call despite waiting several minutes so we moved on to 100 Acre, taking the trail up by Meadow Lane. We stopped to look out over the big lake and the island and soon found a female Tufted Duck with 9 ducklings. The whinnying of a pair of Little Grebes alerted us to their presence and I located them tucked in under the bank of the island. There was also a Coot with 2 young. A juvenile Black-headed Gull was standing on the island. At first I thought it was definitive proof that they have nested on the island as it looked like it couldn't yet fly but a few minutes later it took to the air, so it may have flown in from elsewhere. There were a number of adult BH Gulls which were flying about over the island making a lot of noise so they may have young or nests there, just need to spot a younger chick. There were several Grey Herons around the lake and some Cormorant left as we arrived. A couple more Coot families were spotted, one family having six youngsters. There was also a couple of Mallard families, one with good sized young and the other with recently hatched young.

Working our way back along the path I spotted an Oystercatcher on the island and everybody got a good look at this beautiful bird. There was a good number of Tufted Ducks on Meadow Lane GP with many of the males now starting into eclipse plumage.

We stopped at the STW bridge again but still failed to locate the Cuckoo. With quite a breeze getting up by now we crossed the bridge over the New Cut and walked along the north side of the Cut in the shelter of the embankment. I was hoping for a Ringlet Butterfly along here and was rewarded at the very end of the path just before we arrived back at the main park entrance.

Skirting the car park we had lovely close views of a Goldfinch which perched just above our heads as we made our way back to the visitor centre and the end of the walk.

Not a huge number of species this month and sightings were restricted to just a few of those, relying on our ears for the rest. It was nice to see a few damselflies, as well as those mentioned we had Blue-tailed and Red-eyed and probably a few others that I was unable to ID. I only saw one Dragonfly which I think was a Black-tailed Skimmer from the brief view I had. Also good to see a few butterflies around probably due to the rise in temperature and the sun putting in an appearance. A shame we couldn't locate the juvenile Cuckoo, but here are a few photo's I got on Saturday afternoon:

It's another early start next next month, 8am on Sunday July 28th, meet at the visitor centre.

    

Saturday 22nd June

Pretty steady this last couple of weeks. Everything is still around but some are quietening down while others spring back into life and we have the occasional unexpected visitor.

This week Chiffchaffs have sprung back into life after a quiet period. I had noticed this on my local patch in Kempston and when I mentioned it to DK he said he'd noticed the same for the park. He'd also had a Lesser Whitethroat singing in the car park during the week.

The surprise visitor was a Black Swan on Thursday. It was on the main lake first thing before moving to the river and heading up to the embankment later on.

The Cuckoos are still about but we still don't have a confirmed female so all the males singing may be for nought. The first of the BTO's ringed Cuckoos has already departed for the continent so they may not be around much longer.

It was very blustery on Saturday morning which probably kept things quieter than normal, we did have a Mink sprint across the main path, by the entrance to the Spit, in front of us.

It's been a bad year for Mallards so far with duckling numbers way down on last year, unless they have a late rally.

The Fingers Mute Swans still have 5 cygnets and the main lake pair surprised us with 2 youngsters this week. We thought they'd given up!

Would be nice to get out to the island to see what is actually nesting on there now. We're sure the Common Terns are although how many is another matter. Not sure about the Black-headed Gulls but given the numbers hanging around there it seems likely they have nests. Also still not convinced about the Sand Martins. Unfortunately the nettles now mask the hole which one appeared to be using last week and although there was at least 1 flying around on Saturday I didn't see it go in. A single Swallow was spotted on Saturday and there were 50+ Swifts.

After the success of 3 Great Crested Grebe families last year it's looking like a zero this year unless there are some hiding in the reed beds somewhere that we don't know about. It's also been a poor year for Coots and Moorhens with the latter failing to get any young off so far. What a difference to last year when we had Coot nests everywhere and families dotted all along the north side of the main lake and others on Fingers.

It's bird walk time again next week with an 8am start outside the visitor centre on Sunday 30th June. Hope the weather picks up and the wind drops a bit. See you there.