Friday, January 08, 2010

Friday 8th January

More snow fell during my visit to the park this morning. As well as doing my usual walk, I also wanted to check on the terrain conditions in the places I am planning on taking the public on my guided walk tomorrow morning. There were very few photo opportunities because of light.

8 Goldcrests were found, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers were drumming, 2 Bullfinch were noted, at least 9 Redwing passed through the park, 2 Nuthatch called from the trees along the River Len, 2 Green Woodpeckers were seen, a flock of Lesser Redpoll were found in the Alders west of the Boating Ramps on the northern edge of the Lake, and a Grey Heron was spotted standing along the River Len.



Male Tufted Duck

Unbelievably, just like yesterdays visit, snow began falling as I reached the Causeway and Weir, and continued through to the end of my walk. I managed to spot at least 19 Pochards and 13 Tufted Duck on the Golf Course side of the Lake, and 2 Mute Swan and 5 Canada Geese were with the many Mallards and Coots that approached close to the Weir bridge. Most of the gull flock was resting on the ice and consisted of at least 60 Black-headed Gulls and 24 Common Gulls.



Most of the Lake remains iced-over


The Water Rail was found, like yesterday, on the far bank of the ‘overgrown’ Pond opposite the Waterfall – below is the only photo I could manage.



Spot the Water Rail


4 comments:

Greenie said...

Simon ,
Better shot than I've got of Water Rail , and I'm still waiting for Redpolls this winter .
Hope the walk goes well tomorrow .

Adam said...

Harsh old time - check through all those Redpoll, I seem to be only one turning up Mealy in Kent, I need someone else to find one I'm starting to doubt myself!

Adam

Anonymous said...

I was in mote park this morning and saw much of what you saw. I thought you might like to know I saw x2 different Water Rail - 1 near the bridge near the Willington Street entrance and the second was near the bank of the lake where there was still some water nearish to the golf course. I also saw a Snipe below the little snack bar near the boat area.

Simon said...

Thanks anonymous for your sightings. I haven't seen the Water Rail in these places yet this winter. Well done with seeing the Snipe, I shall check that spot out the next time I'm in the park - search the pond well, as snipe can be spotted here sometimes!

Next Event - TBA