12 July 2012

It felt a bit like autumn this morning, it was a lovely bright sunny morning with a cool edge probably caused by the WNW breeze which made the 11c start feel a bit cooler than that, by the end of my three hour visit the temperature had risen to a nice 19c, visit from 06.10 til 09.10.

There was a good number of juvenile species around this morning, probably more than I've seen all year which after all the rain was a nice sight, showing that things haven't maybe been as bad as first thought, Mute Swan, Coot and Mallard young have been around for a good while now and are seen everyday, but I also saw today juvenile Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Robin, Wren, Blackbird, Great Tit, Blackcap and Dunnock.

Other species seen included a good count of nine Chiffchaff around the park, 25 Swift were over the visitor centre, on the main lake and boating lake 221 Canada Geese was a slightly low count but didn't include the Canada creche which normally accounts for around another 30, I managed 12 Greylag Geese and the Barnacle Goose among the flock, five Black-headed Gulls went through, on the main lake, just three Great Crested Grebe and just four Tufted Duck, along with the seven Mute Swans which included three cygnets, two Garden Warblers were seen today one on each side of the main lake, just two Swallows were around and a single House Martin, three Lesser Black-backed Gulls went through all adults and a Grey Wagtail flew over the main lake calling.

In the reserve a Greenfinch was calling, two Reed Warblers on the top pool and a Jay nearby, the pool just below the top one had a female Mallard with two ducklings which looked no more than a day or two old, a single Willow Tit was among a flock of c30 Long-tailed Tits, a single Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over the old sewage works, also on here two Whitethroat and a Willow Warbler which had a bit of a unusual song, it started pure Willow until a Chiffchaff started up nearby and then the call became almost a mix of the two.