Time: from 6:00 a.m.
Weather: dry, misty and then sunny, light wind, 3°C to 10°C
This was my earliest morning visit to Gloucester Park.
Oh, my goodness!
The early morning light was just amazing with the mist and sun doing battle and the light wind providing lovely reflections and colours on the lake.
I saw 30 species of birds today, by far the highest total since I started visiting Gloucester Park.
This included 4 additional species for my site list, increasing it to 32 species, one of which was also an addition to my UK 2020 year list.
The first of these 4 species was Common Tern which takes my UK 2020 year list to 148. This is the fourth addition to my 2020 year list after restricting my birding to my 3 sites close to home. It follows Blackcap in the area around St. Nicholas Church, Grey Wagtail at Gloucester Park and Lesser Whitethroat at Noak Bridge Nature Reserve. I initially heard 2 Common Terns calling and then saw them both flying high overhead. Unfortunately, they didn’t decide to stop and fish the lake.
The other 3 species which I added to my site list were a Grey Heron fishing about half way along the north side of the lake, a female Sparrowhawk relentlessly pursuing a panic-stricken Magpie and a group of Starlings.
Other highlights included 2 Grey Wagtails, 2 singing male Blackcaps with a further 6 heard but not seen, 3 singing Chiffchaffs heard but not seen, 1 Green Woodpecker with a further 3 heard calling, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker with another heard calling and a single Cormorant fishing in the lake.
Since my last visit, there have been some new arrivals. There are now 2 pairs of Greylag Geese with goslings (7 and 8 respectively) and 2 pairs of Canada Geese with goslings (4 and 5 respectively). The "cuteness factor" is currently high but these "fluffballs" will soon grow up to be honking, argumentative and bullying adults!
I additionally saw 2 Grey Squirrels.
Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Robin
Wren
Dunnock
Blackbird
Starling
Goldfinch
Grey Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Sparrowhawk
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Carrion Crow
Magpie
Canada Goose
Greylag Goose
Mallard
Coot
Moorhen
Grey Heron
Cormorant
Common Tern
Black-headed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Grey Squirrel
I took a lot of photos on this visit so I am going to split the blog post in to 2 parts, this being part 1 with landscape photos (plus photos of birds in the landscape) and part 2 to follow with bird photos.
Site totals to date:
Birds = 32
Mammals = 2
Butterflies = 1
Dragonflies and damselflies = 0
Reptiles = 0
Amphibians = 0
💚🦆
🦉 🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature
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