My first proper visit to Westport in ages and the bloody weather was awful, non stop heavy rain with a strong east/southeast wind, temp 7c but felt cooler with the wind and rain, visit from 08.10 - 09.50.
The boating lake was totally deserted and didn't bode well for the rest of the visit, on the main lake the family of 3 Mute Swans which later moved onto the pools in the nature reserve, I only managed to count 29 Tufted Ducks through the rain, although there were probably more the numbers of Tufted Ducks have been dropping off over recent weeks, the male Shoveler was also on the main lake with 20 Pochards and a single Goldeneye, among the Black-headed Gulls a single Common Gull and a Jackdaw was in the trees by the old toilet block, a single male Bullfinch was by the sidings with a further 3 on the old gas works, back to the main lake and only 3 Great Crested Grebes were seen with a single Little Grebe, lastly bird of the day which made the visit all worth while was a Woodcock in the nature reserve not far from the boardwalk bridge near the stream, the dog flushed it and it flew a short distance towards the small marsh area just over the boardwalk bridge, I had a look around this area but couldn't relocate it, a Westport tick for me and made a horrid visit all worth while.
Nick had told me last week that some work had been going on in the nature reserve area, the following pictures below show some of the works carried out.
The boating lake was totally deserted and didn't bode well for the rest of the visit, on the main lake the family of 3 Mute Swans which later moved onto the pools in the nature reserve, I only managed to count 29 Tufted Ducks through the rain, although there were probably more the numbers of Tufted Ducks have been dropping off over recent weeks, the male Shoveler was also on the main lake with 20 Pochards and a single Goldeneye, among the Black-headed Gulls a single Common Gull and a Jackdaw was in the trees by the old toilet block, a single male Bullfinch was by the sidings with a further 3 on the old gas works, back to the main lake and only 3 Great Crested Grebes were seen with a single Little Grebe, lastly bird of the day which made the visit all worth while was a Woodcock in the nature reserve not far from the boardwalk bridge near the stream, the dog flushed it and it flew a short distance towards the small marsh area just over the boardwalk bridge, I had a look around this area but couldn't relocate it, a Westport tick for me and made a horrid visit all worth while.
Nick had told me last week that some work had been going on in the nature reserve area, the following pictures below show some of the works carried out.
Top pool area
New fencing near the top bridge
Clearing of scrub by the boardwalk bridge.
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