Saturday 26th May

It was a dull and overcast morning between 5.55am and 8am, and there was a light north wind, making the temperature feel a lot, lot cooler than the past few days.

A total of 4 Blackcaps, 8 Chiff Chaffs, 6 Reed Warblers, and 13 Whitethroats were singing throughout my visit.

A scan of the Lake produced a minimum of 3 Mute Swans, 2 families of Mallard – 1 with 7 young, which due to the size of them must have hatched this morning or yesterday evening, and another with 5, which were almost the same size as the mother – and 4 Great Crested Grebes with 2 young, together with the usual Canada Geese, Mallard, Coots and Moorhens - with 1 pair making a nest on the Pond. There were around 14 Black Headed Gulls and 1 Common Gull flying above and on the water, 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were also flying around, and 1 Cormorant swam in the water, 1 sat on the island next to the Weir, and another 2 sat on a smaller, lower island further out in the Lake.

A Pheasant called from the Meadow, a Cuckoo called, 2 Grey Herons fished from the Lake’s edge, the Little Owl hunted in the area of long grass in front of Mote House, young Great Spotted Woodpeckers could be heard calling from within a woodpecker hole, a Turtle Dove purred from the large Oak in the meadow next to the Old Bothy and footbridge, and a scan over the Park produced 5 Swifts, 1 Swallow, 1 Grey Heron flying west, a group of 7 Herring Gulls flying north, several pairs of Woodpigeons flying west and east, and a flock of 11 Jackdaws flying east.

A nice surprise after entering the Park was a vixen, which crossed my path as I walked along Laurel Walk.