Saturday 3rd May

It was a lovely spring day today. Unfortunately my camera was still on charge from a previous day out birding, so no photos could be taken today.

11 Blackcap, 3 Chiff Chaff, and 17 Whitethroat were heard singing – still no Lesser Whitethroats or Garden Warblers! – 2 Linnet were seen, 4 Nuthatch noted, a Treecreeper was seen climbing up a Sweet Chestnut, 4 Stock Dove were heard singing, a Little Owl could be seen sitting just inside its hole, 3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers were heard calling, 3 Pheasants called, a Cuckoo called from the Lake’s western edge, a Nightingale burst into song as I passed the dense woodland to the south of the Old Bothy – fantastic, my first in the park for the year, 2 Green Woodpeckers were heard, 2 Swifts were seen flying over the Golf Course – my first for the year, and a Goldcrest was seen in hunting small spiders in some Ivy.

Birds seen on the Lake were 4 Canada Geese, 2 Mute Swans, 3 Great Crested Grebes, and the countless Mallards, Coots and Moorhens. There were 4 Black-headed Gulls on the Lake, a Grey Heron fished from the Lakes eastern edge opposite the Model Boat platform, and 9 Reed Warblers were heard singing around the perimeter of the Lake.

Also of note were the parks Horse Chestnut treesbeginning to flower, and the public now only have access to half of the Golf Course and Playing Fields because the construction of Radio 1’s Big Weekend music stages has begun.