The mist almost cleared, but with the onset of clouds it left a murky misty grey look to the day....
Cold, warmer, rainy....back to cold...but theres no holding back nature....
....its all coming up....Bluebells...
....and nature has provided food for...something.....up in top North Field this is the remains...
...of a Woodpigeon....
Talking of North Field....two Skylarks were singing and a few were fluttering around. Added to this were 4 Yellowhammers zooming around the field landing at various points around the edge....
Moving to East Pit there wasn't much to see at all...2 Gadwall (though more on the other pits) and 2 Great Crested Grebe (usual number for here) with 4 Coot. Very quiet.
Along Long Straight it was quiet with a few Blue Tits in flight, but no finches on the Alders.
I could already hear Grey Herons calling....they were quite vocal most of the time I was on site. At one point there were 4 over the Heronry with another one or two scattered around the site. Looks like they are getting prepared for the breeding season ahead.
Grey Heron
On Island Pit 5 Teal were present another over on Middle Pit. Around 50 Shoveler on the two pits today.
On Middle Pit there were plenty of Black-headed Gull and in amongst them 4 Common Gulls. The 2 female Goldeneye had been joined by a male providing an interesting sight I had never seen before...
Goldeneye
Ive managed to partly capture the behaviour.....in the picture below one of the females is partly submerged and had obviously don't this of her own free will....the male was approaching in full view, with the female slowly swimming backwards....
...it was all over in a few seconds....was this warding the male off, or part of a pairing ritual, the two were swimming together, slightly apart from the other female, after.....
At Middle Pit, whilst I was scanning the Willow on the north side I happened upon a small bird flitting around....a Chiffchaff....a very lucky find indeed, if I hadn't bothered scoping along the edge for more Teal I would have missed it. A Little Egret was around for a while.
On West Pit the Black-necked Grebe was still present. Fabulous. A Snipe flew out from the near by bank and didn't go far. I searched for it and flushed it a second time. Down it went. Jack? It was hard not to flush it from the east bank and away it went, this time off in an easterly direction for hidden pit. Common Snipe. Darker wings than a Jack.....maybe next time.
There must have been at least 4 or possibly 5 Buzzards today and 2 Kestrels, making up the raptor section.
On the way back I found 3 Mistle Thrushes around the puddles area.
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