Recently a great northern diver was seen there, although on two visits I didn't have time to walk the whole way round which could be reason for not seeing it!. Yesterday a Scaup was seen but again I missed it!
However despite the rather muddy path around, it was a lovely place to be, and a nice walk in the summer months I should think.
During my walk I was able to see a flock of long tailed tits, wren, tufted ducks, mallard, great crested grebes, gadwall, pochard, coot and mute swan.
gadwall in conversation with a coot?
pair of gadwall
After circuiting the lake which took about an hour, I drove over to a neighbouring nature reserve at Whelford Pools, which I have not visited for some months.
From the first hide I could make out a pair of goosander in the distance, and also saw cormoratns, great crested grebes, tufted duck, gadwall mallard, shovelers and coots.
However the main interest for me was when out of the bushes flew a small bird which landed on the ground in front of some other bushes several metres ahead of me and stayed there motionless for ages. I had expected to see it was a robin but quickly realised it was in fact a brambling! As I edged to one side to get a better view I expected it to fly off into the bushes, but it didn't move. I watched it for several minutes on the ground and took a few photos, but then it flew a couple of metres onto a fallen branch. It was then I noticed that its eyes seemed half shut, which made me wonder if it was in fact unwell. However a few other photos did show it with eyes open so I am unsure! After walking on for another 5 minutes I returned to find it had only moved a short distance away from where it was before.
It was a good opportunity for some photos and also another tick for the year list even though, sadly, its health was questionable.
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