Date: 27th March 2021
Time: from 7:15 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, moderate wind, 3°C to 6°C
This was my first visit to Gloucester Park since 13th February 2021 when there was snow on the ground with temperatures of -3°C with a wind chill to -9°C.
Like that visit, it was a very sunny this morning and much warmer, albeit still chilly with the moderate wind.
With the onset of spring, I expected the
site to be more active in terms of wildlife than it turned out to be. In fact,
this was probably one of my quietest visits and I struggled to see many birds
other than the ubiquitous noisy Canada Geese.
However, I did
manage to add 2 species to my site list for the year this morning:
a distantly singing Chiffchaff and a few singing Wrens.
The
other main highlight was a Green Woodpecker flying through the area between
the main lake and the small lake
at the eastern end of the site.
I failed to see a Grey Heron along the edge
of the main lake but there was one curiously perched in a hedge close to the small
lake.
Unusually, the small lake at the eastern end of the site had no birds on it at all but the main lake had c.50 Canada Geese, 8 Greylag Geese, c.10 Mallards and a few Coots and Moorhens. The other small lake at the southern edge of the site held a further 5 Greylag Geese, c.10 Mallards, 2 Coots, a single Moorhen and a few Black-headed Gulls, one of which was in full summer plumage and another in near full summer plumage.
On my last visit, I recorded my highest count
of Cormorants for the site (17) but this morning I only saw
2 birds fishing together in the main lake.
Finally, I saw 2 Grey Squirrels in the area close to the bridge at the eastern
end of the main lake.
Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):
Grey Squirrel
Here are some photos from my visit:
Site totals to date (2021 totals in brackets):
Mammals = 2 (2)
Butterflies = 1 (0)
Dragonflies and damselflies = 0 (0)
Reptiles = 0 (0)
Amphibians = 0 (0)
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