Wednesday 23rd March

No lectures at Uni today, so I decided to spend a couple of hours of the morning in Mote Park. It was such a beautiful sunny morning, and the temperature was very warm - t-shirt weather for some!

Green Woodpecker

3 Goldcrest were noted, 5 Treecreeper were seen, 6 Nuthatch were noted, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers were drumming, 6 Green Woodpeckers were noted, several Goldfinch and Greenfinch were come across, 3 Chiffchaff were singing, a Grey Wagtail was seen flying west over the Lake, a few Siskin were heard flying over but too high to see, 2 Pheasant were noted, 2 Herring Gulls flew north, 1 Kestrel was spotted, and 2 Sparrowhawk were seen, a pair of Bullfinch - the first for the year - were seen, and a KINGFISHER was seen twice as it flew down and up the River Len - the first for almost 12 months!!! Hopefully this sighting of a Kingfisher means that they may be returning locally to their old haunts after being hit heard by the past hard winters - you used to be guaranteed to see at least 1 Kingfisher on every visit up until December 2009.

Another Green Woodpecker

A Grey Heron and a Great Crested Grebe were seen along the River Len, and of particular note on the Lake were 11 Mute Swan, 5 Great Crested Grebes, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, around 165 Black-headed Gulls, and at least 18 Common Gulls.

Ancient Cherry

It was lovely to see 3 Peacock butterflies, 1 Comma and 1 Small Tortoiseshell as well.