Monday 13 March 2017

BACK TO COATE WATER

A beautiful sunny and mild spring day... perfect for Brimstone butterflies I thought, and sure enough, I saw seven of them on my journey home at midday! A real herald of spring, to my mind. 

On reaching home, I packed a  few sandwiches and headed off to Coate Water, which I hadn't visited for a while. For a change I decided to go straight down to Hide 2. After stopping to look at some goldcrests in the hedgerow, I sat in the hide for a while.  It was pretty quiet: a few shovelers,  gadwall, canada geese, cormorant,  mallards,  on the water, around the hide were chaffinch, dunnock, bluetit, great tit,  etc so I threw out some bird food onto the mud at the water's edge to the right of the hide. Within a short time I saw first one water rail, then a second one,  both feeding at the same time. 

Stopping off at Hide 1, birds noted were: grey heron, goosanders, teal, mallard, coot, moorhen, greylag geese, on the feeders I saw great tit, goldfinch, blue tit, coal tit, long tailed tits, dunnock. robin,  and greater spotted woodpecker. 
chaffinch
fluttering goldcrest!


great tit

greater spotted woodpecker

shoveler

one water rail...

...two water rails

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