22 January 2012

Another very windy morning, although not quite as bad as yesterday, it was altogether brighter and drier.

There were 3 Pied Wagtails on the playing field but not much else, on the boating lake a female Goosander, 4 Tufted Duck and 2 Mute Swans with another 4 on the main lake, also on the main lake 3 Great Crested Grebes, 15 Pochard, Goldeneye have increased too 4 (3 females and a male) and 44 Tufted Duck.
Siskins have been thin on the ground so far this year so a count of 20 in the nature reserve was an improvement, one of the regulars also had a good number of Lesser Redpolls a few weeks ago with around 10 by the top pool, a single male Bullfinch was also in the reserve but not much else.
2 Stock Doves were on the old gas works and at least 3 Herring Gulls flew over, but sadly we didn't fluke the Iceland Gull again, on the old sewage works a Cormorant flew over (my first of the year at Westport) as did a Jay.
Later in the morning Jeff Jones had a Green Woodpecker fly over the sewage works, another year tick for here.