22 February 2012

It felt almost spring like first thing this morning at 11c, well that was until the SW breeze got up and the rain came followed by an argument with another dog walker!!

There was a good count of 12 Mute Swans on the  boating lake including the regularly seen yellow rung bird, the resident pair were on the main lake, 3 Tufted Duck were on the boating lake plus another 27 on the main lake, a single Great Crested Grebe was also on the boating lake along with the male Shoveler, my first at Westport this year, although it's been around now for a few days, a further 4 Great Crested Grebes were displaying on the main lake along with 2 pair of Goldeneye, 6 Pochard were also present this morning along with a pair of Goosander briefly, 5 Pied Wagtails were along the grass edge of the main lake and a pair of Mistle Thrushes were along the canal side with a single Chaffinch, on the old gas works just a single Stock Dove was present and a adult Herring Gull flew over with a 1st winter on the main lake later, in the reserve a single Coal Tit and the Canada Geese have started to mark there territories with 8 pairs present, a Great Spotted Woodpecker was by the bottom gate and lastly a Common Gull landed on the main lake as I left.