Monday, March 29, 2010

Saturday 27th March

I was leading a walk this morning starting at 9.30am from the main car park. I took the opportunity of the earlier sunrise to do my usual walk before-hand.

Grey Squirrel

Over the whole morning the following were recorded: 5 Nuthatch, 3 Treecreeper, 4 Goldcrest, 1 Coal Tit, 5 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 6 Green Woodpeckers, the Little Owl was in its usual Oak, a pair of Stock Dove were noted, at least 7 Chiff Chaff were singing, and 6 Med Gulls were with the gull flock on the top playing field - 2 individuals had colour rings on, but without a scope no letters or numbers could be seen. Bird of the day, however, was a calling Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (74) along the River Len close to the large London Plane tree and No Fishing sign. Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers are hard to find these days in the park, having not been confirmed breeding since 2007, so it was fantastic to find one today.


Gulls
(The front 2 birds are adult Mediterranean Gulls - note the more extensive jet black hoods and the lack of black on the wing tips, they also appear ever-so-slightly larger than their more common relative the Black-headed Gull in the background, but this can be hard to see sometimes.)

Of particular note on the Lake were at least 6 Tufted Duck, 5 Great Crested Grebes, 5 Mute Swans, and 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.


Butterbur


Before the walk I managed to locate 25+ flower spikes of Butterbur along the River Len, Sweet Violet and Lesser Celendine are now in flower, and several Bumblebee species were seen.
(Please also note that the events column has been updated.)

4 comments:

Phil said...

Good news on the Lesser Pecker Simon. I'm embarrassed to say I've never seen one. Haven't seen a Med Gull yet this year either.

Warren Baker said...

Well done with the LSW Simon, a species I will be very fortunate to see his year.

Ken. said...

Well done Simon with the Lesser Pecker, also nice photo of the Med Gulls.

Dan Salter said...

Grey Squirrel????

Ha ha cheers for a top day out today mate...see you again soon :)

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