Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 7 28-March-2016

Sorry about the lack of updates but I've had nothing to write about.

The weather has been appalling throughout March, work has been busy and I've simply not been able to get out on patch. I did manage to get out on the bank holiday Monday and I was rewarded with several new birds.

Another crop from later in the day.

Things started off pretty typically with Blue Tits and Great Tits in the car parks along with the odd finch. There was a lot of action on the North pond and in total I must have seen around 100 Tufted Ducks. I can only imagine what these numbers will swell to once the ducklings start arriving.

There were only a few Greenfinches about.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary and while there had been high winds there were no vagrants that had been blown off course. What I did see however was a lone Swallow, desperately battling against the strong wind on the hunt for insects. It's the earliest one I've seen at Longham and was pleasurable to watch. It was also a much needed tick, although not the sort of bird that will start allowing me to catch up with Martin, who is also patching Longham.

A heavy crop, but there's a Swallow :)

Continuing around the far side of the lake I spied a pair of Bullfinches, although frustratingly, my camera constantly focused on twigs, meaning I couldn't get a single clear shot. Other birds in the thicket included Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinches and Chiff Chaffs.

My shutterspeed was 500, far too slow for this bird!

I was soon alerted to a hunting Kestrel, which continued to patrol both lakes on the hunt for food, but I saw no other raptors. Ducks were relatively scarce with a small group of Gadwell and Teal, the odd Mallard and a couple of Shoveler. The gulls were nowhere to be seen either, with just a small flock of Black-Headed Gulls on the south lake.

A lone Little Egret was skulking about.

Once I got over to the far side of the south lake (which has a smaller pond running adjacent to it) I was rewarded with my first Moorhen of the year as well as a Green Woodpecker. Sadly, I was unable to get pics of decent quality, but it was great to see them all the same.

I thought this was a Turtle Dove, but on close inspection it's a Collard Dove :(

I've now spotted 51 different species of birds since the beginning of the year. Hopefully there will be more to come now migration season is in full swing.

Here's all the birds I spotted.

Blue Tit (6)
Bullfinch (2)
Canada Geese (10)
Chaffinch (5)
Chiffchaff (3)
Collard Dove (3)
Cormorant (12)
Coot (too many)
Gadwell (8)
Great Tit 5
Green Woodpecker
Greylag Geese (5)
Great Crested Grebe (12)
Little Egret
Long-Tailed Tit (3)
Mallard (5)
Moorhen
Magpie 7
Shoveler (3)
Swallow
Teal 6
Tufted Duck (100)