07 July 2012

A decent morning weather wise after all the rain, it was nice to see the sun shining and although everywhere was very wet, the Fowlea brook wasn't anywhere near as high as it was last month when we had over two days of heavy rain. That said we also visited Branston Gravel Pits and Uttoxeter Quarry were flash floods were very evident.

 Branston Gravel Pits

Uttoxeter Quarry was even worse

So back to Westport as we were on a tour of South Staffs it was a shorter than usual visit from 06.10 til 07.50.

A small group of just three Mallard Ducklings which were less than a week old made there way across the car park to the boating lake, three groups of Black-headed Gulls flew over involving seven birds in total, all were adults but I'm sure it won't be long before we have the first juvenile of the year, a single Pied Wagtail was along the front of the main lake, sadly they don't seem to have had a successful breeding season as no youngsters have been seen so far this year, another species missing young birds is Mistle Thrush with three also along the front edge, a couple of waders were seen today firstly a single Common Sandpiper, the first one for over a week and two Little Ringed Plover were flying around the front of the main lake.

On the main lake Tufted Duck have dropped off slightly from the previous day with seven present, six Great Crested Grebe were also on the main lake with two still sitting, the four Mute Swan remain with the three cygnets doing well, 13 Greylag Geese were on the boating lake mixed in with the Canada Geese flock, over the main lake just five Swift were present, a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over towards the nature reserve, just a single Blackcap was heard today and three Chiffchaff, some of the Coot are on there second brood and two pairs both have four chicks each which are less than a week old, two Reed Warbler were singing on the top pool, but no sign of the Sedge Warbler that was seen here yesterday or the Hobby which has been coming and going all summer, two Whitethroat were on the old sewage works and a Treecreeper was calling along the canal side of the main lake and lastly as we were leaving we picked up the Barnacle Goose which returned yet again yesterday.

Below a couple of photo's received from Dominic Salisbury, sadly my camera is rather poorly and I've missed being able to take some photo's around Westport and adding them to my blog.

Photo of Barnacle Goose & Great Crested Grebe by Dominic Salisbury