SS15 wildlife watching: Visit to Gloucester Park

Date: 13th February 2021

Time: from 8:15 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, moderate wind, -3°C plus significant wind chill to -9°C

I have visited both my other local patch sites recently during the very cold and snowy weather so I decided to visit Gloucester Park this morning before the temperatures begin to increase in the coming days.

It was a beautiful sunny morning but also the coldest so far for my recent visits to my local patch sites. The temperature was -3°C but the Met Office website said that the moderate wind made it feel like -9°C. The temperature was positively balmy compared with the low that Braemar in north east Scotland experienced recently ....

However, I prepared appropriately with several layers including my thermal base layers, thermal socks and thermal gloves. Fortunately I did not feel the cold too much but a Saint Bernard carrying a barrel of brandy would have been a welcome sight. He didn’t turn up.

The main lake was almost ice free but the small lake at the far eastern end of the site was almost completely frozen over other than a very small area which was occupied by 5 Mallards and 2 Coots. A flock of c.30 Black-headed Gulls evidently didn’t mind cold feet as they stood on the ice in the centre of the lake.

Some of the snow from recent days had melted and what remained was mostly compacted ice which made walking somewhat treacherous in places.

I added 3 species to my site list for the year this morning.

Firstly, I saw a group of 15 fly-over Fieldfares whilst walking round the main lake and then saw a further 8 at various locations around the site. This was also my first record ever for the site and brought my site total for bird species to 45.

Secondly, I saw 2 individual Greylag Geese associating with the Canada Geese around the main lake. I saw several adults and goslings during the spring and summer last year but until today I had not seen this species at all during my winter visits.

Thirdly, I saw 2 fly-over Pied Wagtails between the main lake and the small lake at the eastern end of the site.

Having seen a Kingfisher on my last 2 visits, I hoped that I would see this bird again and get some photos of it in the snow. Like the Saint Bernard, it didn’t show up!

Small passerines were rather scarce although 2 singing Robins and 2 singing Dunnocks did try and convince me that spring wasn’t far off. The passerine highlight in addition to the Fieldfares was their winter visiting relative the Redwing with c.10 seen at various locations around the site.

With regard to water birds, I saw a male Tufted Duck on the main lake. I had previously seen this species on my visit on 6th January 2021 on the small lake at the eastern end of the site but it was not present on my last visit. Whether this is the same returning bird, I am not sure.

In addition, there were c.20 Mallards on the main lake plus c.50 Canada Geese, a few Coots and Moorhens plus a single Mute Swan. I saw another Mute Swan in flight over the small lake at the eastern end of the site.

A Grey Heron stood at the edge of the main lake looked distinctly cold and disgruntled and I saw another in flight between the main lake and the small lake at the eastern end of the site.

On my last visit, I recorded my highest count of Cormorants for the site (8) but this morning I exceeded that with a remarkable total of at least 17 birds perched high in the trees on the island at the western end of the main lake, flying around the island and occasionally fishing in the lake itself.

Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):

Blue Tit
Great Tit
Robin

Fieldfare

Redwing

Dunnock

Goldfinch

Pied Wagtail

Green Woodpecker

Woodpigeon

Collared Dove

Jay

Carrion Crow