Patchwork Challenge - Visit 3

January the 16th has been the best day so far in terms of weather. It was incredibly cold, but was dry with absolutely fantastic light. Annoyingly, I neglected to take my tripod as I stupidly thought I could take perfectly fine pictures without it. I couldn't. Still it proved to be a good day, with a number of new birds added to the usual suspects.

The car park was full of activity, with Great Tits, Starlings, Long-Tailed Tits and Blue Tits all putting in an appearance. A Robin was singing from a low bush, marking my first on the patch and a solitary Redwing was hanging around too. All in all a promising start to my walk.

The south lake was fairly quite with the odd Great Crested Grebe and Tufted Ducks swimming about. There were no Cormorants and the Pochards were on the far side of the lake, away from the fisherman. I was hoping the bracing cold would have convinced a few Water Rails to show themselves but I was out of luck. It wasn't all bad though, as a commotion in the reeds brought a Wren to my attention and it was soon followed by a pair of Collard Doves, two new birds in the space of a couple of minutes.

I was paying more attention to the hedgerows this time around, picking up more foraging tits, a small flock of Greenfinches and the first on patch Chaffinch of the year, a male who was on his own. There were no raptors around today, and I still couldn't see any Moorhens, although Coots were incredibly plentiful.

Not the greatest shot, but not terrible for handheld.

Once I was around the south lake I scanned the Hampreston fields, hoping for some gull or geese action. Sadly it was relatively quiet with Black-Headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Mute Swans and a lone Greylag Geese. The fields were getting less waterlogged, but there was plenty of ice about, meaning some of the birds were finding it quite difficult, particularly the heavy swans.

The lake continued to be quiet, although I did disturb a pair of Little Grebes that hurried off into the centre of the lake. Moving around the second lake there was a bit more action although less ducks than before.. Jackdaws, Rooks and Carrion Crows were in the adjacent fields and passerines were plentiful too. I spotted my first ChiffChaff of the year in one of the old oak trees, but I missed a small flock of Godwits that another pair of birders saw a few moments earlier.

As I was making the final stretch of the lake I saw a Grey Heron fly lazily across the pond, but still couldn't see any Egrets. I looked at the large flock of gulls resting on the lake, but they didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary.

Upon reaching the small island I found most of the Canada Geese a few mallard and a lone Teal and Wigeon. There were no Shoveler to be seen although a quick hunt did reveal a pair of Gadwell.

You don't realise how tiny Wigeon actually are.

As I was heading back to the car I was alerted to a Grey Wagtail that began foraging on the opposite side of the lake, meaning I couldn't really get any good shots. Nothing exciting jumped out this week, but it was still an enjoyable walk, even if I did regret not having my tripod. Still I'm now up to 40 total birds, which is pretty good going. Here's hoping I can reach 50 by the end of January.

Really high ISO, so not the greatest of shots.

Here's a list of the birds seen

Blackbird

Black-Headed Gull

Blue Tit

Canada Geese

Carrion Crow

Chaffinch

Chiffchaff

Collard Dove

Cormorant

Gadwell

Goldfinch

Great Crested Grebe

Great Tit

Greenfinch

GreylagGeese

Grey Heron

Grey Wagtail

Herring Gull

Jackdaw

Little Grebe

Long Tailed Tit

Magpie

Mallard

Mute Swan

Pochard

Redwing

Rook

Starling

Tufted Duck

Wigeon

Woodpigeon

Wren