11 August 2010

Felt cool out at first but when the sun broke through the clouds it warmed up nicely, after that very little cloud cover and no wind again, must be calm now for about 5 days, temp 15c going up to 18c as I got home, visit from 05.55 - 08.15.

Nearly all the Canada Geese were on the playing field and included the hybrid CanadaxGreylag again, on the model boating lake 7 Mute Swans and another 29 on the main lake, the Great Crested Grebe family on the boating lake continues to intrigue me, they still have 2 new chicks but the older young are still pinching the fish off the adult every time he tries to feed the new ones, it's very strange and I can't see the new chicks surviving at this rate, on the main lake there are 8 adult and 2 juvenile Great Crested Grebes, Shovelers remain steady with the same 4 as yesterday although they seem to be moving about quite a bit between the two lakes, 67 Tufted Ducks remain on the main lake with 2 Pochard and 1 Gadwall, over 60+ House Martins were over the tree line of the main lake along the canal side and although I only saw a few Swifts Nick had 30+ (I think), a Grey Heron was as usual on the boating lake and later while still there another flew over going south, 3 Willow Warblers were heard mainly from the sidings and along the nature reserve side of the main lake plus Nick had one on the canal side.

Chiffchaffs were everywhere, it was impossible to keep up with numbers, I know Nick had over 20+ with what was down the canal side of the main lake, but along the nature reserve side there was 15+ and I think there was probably many more than that, both Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs were singing again, with the Chiffchaffs and the Tit flock there was also 3+ Willow Tits, Coal Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker and 2 Trecreeper, Richard Sutton also had 2 Garden Warblers in the flock, by the top pool just 1 Reed Warbler was heard calling and on the old sewage works 2 Blackcaps and 2 Jays.

Total species seen 40.