I was just out for the morning today as I was attending my youngest
granddaughter’s first production at school in the afternoon. I decided to go to Watermead Country Park and
arrived around 08:20 but found that the small nature reserve didn’t open until
09:00 and so walked south along the eastern shore of King Lear's Lake. There wasn’t a great deal on the lake just a
few Eurasian Wigeon, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebe. I heard a Green Woodpecker calling on several
occasions and a Goldcrest but very little else.
When I reached the southern end of the lake I walked west and went over
the bridge to reach the Birstall end of the park. As I approached the bridge a single drake
Gadwall flew over and on the next lake I found a single Common Pochard. I continued along the footpaths and
eventually heard my first Cetti's Warbler of the year but with just a few
commoner species in evidence I made my way back along the western edge of King
Lear’s Lake, seeing a single Little Egret.
When I reached the northern edge, I heard a second Cetti's Warbler call
on a couple of occasions but wasn’t able to locate it.
The nature reserve was now open and so I went to Plover Hide to view the scrape,
but it was fairly quiet with just two Common Shelduck and a few Eurasian Wigeon
and Eurasian Teal. I remained in the
hide for a while and on hearing a Eurasian Oystercatcher, two dropped onto the
scrape but I eventually went to a small hide overlooking a small pod on the
edge of the reedbed but saw nothing. I
walked back to the path and then north through the nature reserve. The Green Woodpecker was still calling occasionally,
and I saw a Eurasian Sparrowhawk being mobbed by a Carrion Crow high over King
Lear’s lake. I had chat with a warden I
had seen briefly in Plover Hide and whilst talking to him Andy Smith joined us,
who was here to do some volunteer work.
As we stood talking five Fieldfare and a Redwing flew over and I saw a
Long-tailed Tit. I continued onto the
hide where I found several Blue and Great Tits visiting the feeders, which then
joined by four Long-tailed Tits and two male Common Reed Buntings.
As I walked back to the car another couple of birders thought they had
seen a Common Chiffchaff feeding amongst a pile of cleared vegetation. When I got there, there was no sign of the
Common Chiffchaff, but I did pick up and Green Woodpecker in flight and then
had some rather nice views of it after it landed in a tree. A pair of Eurasian Bullfinch were observed as
I approached the gate to get back to the car.
With still some time before I needed to head for my daughters to join my
wife I decided to go to Swithland Reservoir as there had been a Black-necked
Grebe present yesterday.
I drove down to the dam and found Norman scanning the water, but I drove
to the end of the dam, seeing another Green Woodpecker, before turning and then
joining Norman. He hadn’t seen the
Black-necked Grebe and said Steve had been earlier and hadn’t seen it. I made several scans of the water during my
hour long stay but could only find Tufted Ducks, Common Goldeneyes and several
Coots, although the Black-necked Grebe was reported just after a reached my
daughter’s. Whilst looking for the grebe
a Raven provided some nice views, a single Mistle Thrush was observed and a
pair of Mandarin Duck flew over but there wasn’t a great deal else.
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