I didn't have a lot of time today, but did manage to add a few new birds to my patch list for the Patchwork Challenge. I hurried around the North lake only as the weather was looking poor and I was concerned about getting my big lens wet. It wasn't too bad a day, although frustratingly I left my binoculars at home, meaning I couldn't identify a lot of birds.
It was pretty much business as usual on the lakes, with Tufted Ducks, Pochards, Mallards, Gadwell, Little Grebe, Crested Grebe and Coot all making an appearance. Interestingly, I've seen no Moorhens yet, which seems odd, but I'll keep looking for them. I did spot a few additional ducks this time around, finding a small group of Shoveler on the South Lake Island and Teal dabbling about in the Hampreston Fields.
Female Shoveler to the left and a male Gadwell to the right.
Speaking of Hampreston Fields there was still a lot of action there. The Mute Swans and Canada Geese were still present, but I was also able to add Greylag Geese to my list, which was nice. Unfortunately, I'd left my camera on -2 exposure so the following shot isn't the best.
This was very distant, but doesn't look too bad.
There was a large number of Canada geese present.
I continued to scan the fields and added quite a few Corvids to the list, including Carrion Crows, Jackdaws and about 6 magpies. There was a large flock of around 30 Rooks too, adding another new bird to the patch list. Starlings were also busy, looking for food with the Rooks, so that was another tick to the patch too.
In addition to scanning the waterlogged fields for rare geese (you never know right?) I was also looking for gulls, particularly Common Gulls which are quite common here. I did see plenty of Black-Headed Gulls and a few Herring Gulls but no Common Gulls. Apparently, one of the Herring Gulls was a Northern Scandinavian one, but as far as I know it's not worth extra points. Plenty of gulls have been sighted at the lakes, so I still have time to find some rare ones.
Herring Gulls, the one of the left is the Northern Scandinavian one.
One thing I am lucking out on is passerines. Things got off to a great start with a small group of Great Tits in the car park, but I was less lucky walking around the lakes. I heard plenty of birds, but I'd not trust my ID too identify them by sound alone. I saw plenty of Blackbirds, a few Blue Tits and quite a few Goldfinch, but there were no birds in large numbers. I saw a few more Long Tailed Tits, but the Redwings were nowhere to be seen this time around. Still, I did manage to find a small group of Greenfinch and a lone Pied Wagtail, which gave me two new birds.
The only other new bird this week were two buzzards, which I saw separately, both flying in the same direction. I didn't see any other raptors, although I vainly (and probably, foolishly) scanned the famer's field for barn owls and short-eared owls.
That now brings my patch total to 33 birds, which is way short of what I'd like, but not too bad considering my lack of obvious species like Robin, Dunnock, House Sparrow and several other birds I should have seen by now.
What follows will be a list of every different bird I saw that day, but we'll finish with a shot of a Cormorant :)
Black-Headed Gull
Blackbird
Buzzard
Carrion Crow
Canada Goose
Coot
Cormorant
Gadwell
Goldfinch
Great Crested Grebe
Greylag Goose
Green Finch
Great Tit
Jackdaw
Little Grebe
Long-Tailed Tit
Magpie
Mallard
Pied Wagtail
Pochard
Rook
Shoveler
Starling
Teal
Tufted Duck
Wood Pigeon
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