Date: 21st January 2022
Time: from 8:45 a.m.
Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, -1°C to 1°C
This was my second visit to the site during 2022 following my first on
New Years Day.
It was a very similar morning being very
sunny and dry although there was a significant difference in the temperature: -1°C with a ground frost
this morning compared with a balmy 14°C on 1st January 2022. In fact, it was so
cold that much of the main lake and all of the small lake at the eastern end of
the site were covered in a thin layer of ice.
There were several highlights to my visit this morning with a new site
record plus 3 other additions to my site list for 2022.
The new site record was Gadwall (both a male and female) which I saw several times at various locations on the main lake. I was able to take several photos of the male bird.
Photo: male Gadwall
Photo: male Gadwall
The 4 additions to my site list for 2022 were Kingfisher (a single female seen twice perched in bushes at the very western end of the main lake and also flying off down the lake), Common Gull (a single bird associating with a few Black-headed Gulls and an adult and first winter Herring Gull on the small lake at the eastern end of the site), Green Woodpecker (1 heard calling) and Collared Dove.
Frustratingly,
the Kingfisher refused to perch out in the open and remained partially obscured
by the branches of the bush it was sitting in. Therefore, I only achieved a
poor record photo ….
Photo: a shy female Kingfisher 😀
The other highlight from my visit were a Grey Heron at the western end of the main lake which proved to be very approachable and easy to photograph.
With regard to water birds, I saw the following all on the main lake although
numbers were much reduced compared with my last visit due to the frozen
conditions: an immature Mute Swan, c.10 Canada Geese,
c.20 Mallards, 6 Coots and c.15 Moorhens.
In addition, there were c.10 Cormorants perched in
the tall trees on the island in the main lake or fishing in the lake itself.
Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records
in italics):
Here are some photos from my visit:
Photo: Grey Heron
Photo: Grey Heron
Photo: Cormorant
Photo: Cormorants
Photo: Cormorant
Photo: Cormorant
Photo: male Mallard
Photo: Mallards
Photo: male Mallard
Photo: male Mallard
Photo: male Mallard
Photo: female Mallard
Photo: Canada Geese
Photo: Canada Geese
Photo: Canada Geese
Photo: Coot
Photo: Moorhen
Photo: Common Gull
Photo: Herring Gull
Photo: Black-headed Gull
Photo: Black-headed Gull
Photo: Robin
Photo: Dunnock
Photo: Magpie
Photo: Collared Dove
Site totals to date (2022 totals in brackets):
💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature
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