01 December 2010

The last month of the year and as work sent me home early because they didn't want too pay out anymore overtime! I decided too go straight down too Westport Lake to see if the snow had brought anything in, when I left the house it was like a blizzard with around 3 inches of snow on the ground, the main lake and boating lake were both covered in snow with both having small pockets of open water, by the end of the visit, the skies had cleared the sun was out and the temperature reached a barmy 10c!

There was nothing much among the Gulls and Ducks on the boating lake except for the family of 3 Mute Swans and the only open water on the main lake is at the top, which had another 7 Swans on it, so I went into the nature reserve first, 6 Teal were along the stream between the bottom entrance and the boardwalk bridge, a Great Spotted Woodpecker was calling nearby as first a Buzzard flew over being mobbed by Carrion Crows, followed by a Sparrowhawk, at the top pool a couple of Willow Tits and Jays, a couple of Jackdaws also flew over calling, on the small open water on the main lake, 6 Tufted Ducks, 7 Pochards, the male Shoveler back on his own again, a single Lesser Black-backed Gull and just 1 Great Crested Grebe, among the Black-headed Gulls were 6 Common Gulls, on the gas works I decided to make an idiot of my self and went flying over on ice under the snow, the thud was loud enough to frighten a Grey Heron from Jeff's Pool! On the sewage works at least 4 Bullfinches with around 4 Meadow Pipits flying over and a single Siskin, back at the top of the main lake and I noticed a 1st winter Med Gull with the Black-headed and Common Gulls, it was chased off by a Coot but came back and landed on the water before settling back down on the ice, tried to get a few photo's with my camera phone but was hopeless and just ended up with blurred photo's or taking the picture of a Common Gull instead of the Med Gull, I think this is the 3rd record of the year.

Below are some nice snowy picture's from my mobile.