Thursday 17 November 2016

Waiting for the cold

The day before yesterday I found the Jack Snipe asleep at the base of one of the reed piles again, no decent picture was achieved.

On the path from the car park to Bittern hide were a minimum of 6 Goldcrest, then at Sandford 4 Goldeneye, comprising 3 females and 1 male, the latter being the male with dusky flanks. 3 males had been seen on Sunday, so there is some passage going on.

Yesterday 31 Snipe on Tern scrape, 50 Teal and a lone Little Egret.

I'll be going out shortly and as the temperature is falling, hope more ducks will be arriving and will as always check every Athya for Scaup, Ferruginous, etc. and other grebes.

Yesterday I went all the way along the inner side of WSL, back on the West side of BSL, round to Lavell's and Sandford. Not much to speak of really, a Chiffchaff along the West side of Sandford, no Goldeneye, about 20 Wigeon and 20 Gadwall and 10+ Tufted on WSL.

I was keeping tabs on Goldcrest, 2-3 in various places, 4 in the Southern bay of BSL, as it was a bit windy I wasn't lingering anywhere, but I certainly think a minimum of 12-13 and bearing in mind I had 6 on Lavell's alone the other day, I certainly think the total, should one cover the entire park, would be in excess of 25. I'd need to get my bike out to cover all the 'unwatched' spots, such as by the The Eastern edge of the golf course, all around the DP centre, Middle Marsh, Tufties Corner down to the footbridge near the cinema, then up to Mortimer's Meadow, tricky to cover there without doubling back because the Loddon path is one route, then all the old orchard area near Redwood Close on the outer Western edge, then around the aviation museum and back to Lavell's.

The Pochard were clustered on Lavell's, as were the Teal, 80+ Shoveler too, but not a single Snipe, so perhaps the farmer was out tending his cows and scared them all off?

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