Tuesday 14 August 2012

14th August

My visit today was a rather late one from 6:30pm - 9:00pm, and this made any rarities rather unlikely, especially given the high visitor numbers. However it was a beautiful evening and i thought why not have a look. 

So I started by walking in along the canal, where there was very little happening except for a Blackbird feeding a single juvenile. On the main lake there was 6 Great Crested Grebes including 2 juveniles, 17 Black Headed Gulls including 4 juveniles, 29+ Lesser Black Backed Gulls, including 3 juveniles. Also a good count of 21 Tufted Duck were sat in the middle if the main lake. Just 2 Mute Swans and 2 Cygnets around the reserve side of the lake.

So into the reserve and on the top pool 2 Reed Warblers were singing, as well as there being at least 2 others around. A juvenile Moorhen was using the Lilly Pads as stepping stones across the pool and a family of Mallards swam across with young that were 2 days old at the most. Continuing around the reserve 2 Nuthatch were in the trees near the Sewage Works, as well as a Willow Warbler and a Willow Tit. There was also a Treecreeper calling in the reserve but I couldn't locate it.

That pretty much sums it up, Thanks for reading guys. 

Just as an unrelated side note, i also run a blog called giving back to nature, www.givingbacktonature.blogspot.com . At the moment it only has 3, quickly cut and pasted articles on there from the RSPB just to give it some content but that will also get updated with original stuff when I can.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Dominic, were abouts did you see the Nuthatch, it's a Westport rarity with the last one that stuck around being back in 2010, we did have 2 one day records in 2011 but nothing at all so far this year, also surprised at the GBB gulls as again no records this year except for January and dont normally appear again til Dec so 2 very good records there mate

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    1. Hey chris, the two Nuthatch were near the old sewage works, in the trees obviously, they were quite active, seemed quite aggitated, also the GBB's i'm 85% sure but i'm open to suggestion, they were larger than a herring gull, with very dark backs, and also larger than the LBB's that were about, any other ideas are welcome, also, I didnt realise the Nuthatch were such a rarity, i saw a couplke back in march around the top pool, but i didnt follow the westport or staffs bird news blogs then...

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  2. Since there is uncertainty around the GBB record i'm going to remove it until such a time they can be confirmed, however the nuthatch I'm 100% sure about, not an easy bird to mistake really aha =]

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