07 August 2010

Damp start with light drizzle, wind was very light not sure from which direction, heavy cloud, temp 16c.

First proper visit for a few day's after calling in the other day during heavy rain I decided to walk back and didn't have time to call yesterday, but today seemed to make up for things with some movement and a new Westport tick for me, Canada Geese numbers have taken a huge drop now they have finished there moult, only last month we had nearly 300 birds, today it was down to just 121 with no sign of the hybrid CanadaxGreylag, Swift number were up to 70+ with good numbers of Swallows and House Martins going through, also 10+ Sand Martins all over the main lake, at the top of the main lake a new brood of 5 Coots have hatched, possibly a 2nd brood or the 1st maybe failed, Mute Swans totalled 38 with most on the main lake, the yellow ringed Swan is still present and we now think the ring number is B7Sor5V, it's hard to read to to damage to ring, 2 Shoveler are present with the usual male on the model boating lake and a female on the main lake, the family of 4 Great Crested Grebes remain on the boating lake, but with the female due to hatch her 3rd brood soon it won't be long before the other juveniles are kicked off, 7 Great Crested Grebes were on the main lake 2 of which are juveniles, 81 Tufted Ducks on the main lake shows a slow increase over the week but Pochard remain at 2, 6 Gadwall flew in from the south, they landed in the middle of the main lake and spent about 30+ minutes feeding, when we got back to the main lake from the gas and sewage works they had departed, a single Great Spotted Woodpecker was seen and heard several times around the park, and just one Lesser Black-backed Gull went through heading north.

Chiffchaff numbers were low with only 3 but this was probably due to the weather conditions, at least 2 Reed Warblers were on the top pool, a good count of 6 Bullfinches with a probable family of 5 together on the sewage works, Mistle Thrushes totalled 5 all together on the gas works, also a Sparrowhawk was seen here, a couple of Willow Warblers were calling one at the top of the main lake and one along the canal side of the main lake, lastly bird of the day was a Green Sandpiper picked up by Nick as he scanned the main lake, it flew around the lake looking to land for about 2 minutes before departing high to the south west, a new Westport tick for me.

Hope the good day continues as we now head off to Notts for the Baird's Sandpiper!