Category: Sighting

Dm end from 07;15

Highlights my first Lesser Whitethroat of the autumn moving through the scrub NE corner of the dam.
Green Sandpiper on north shore feeding under willows in shallow water,6 Common Sandpipers scattered around.
217 Canada Geese,2 GBB gulls,1 LBB gull,90 BH gulls & 3 Herrings.
Juvenile Green Woodpecker and female Kestrel on dam slope.
1 Sand Martin,1 Swallow,4 Swifts and 6 House Martins noted,8 Pied Wags in Paddock.
Few Chiffchaffs and a Blackcap seen but bushes quiet.
Finally as I left a Kingfisher strangely flew through the car park.

Whillets
Just had a Lesser spotted Woodpecker flew across the Reed bed and land in Willows on far side.
Seemed to be with some Nuthatches,still Reed Warblers present but only saw 2.
Marsh Tit,Bullfinch,pair of Garden Warblers & 2 Kingfishers around Reed bed.

Whillet’s Butterfly’s

1 Comma
8 Common Blue
7 Gatekeeper
18 GV Whites
2 Holly Blue
55 Meadow Brown
9 Painted Lady’s
6 Small Copper
3 Small Heath
1 Small White
5 Speckled Wood

4 Grass Snakes

4 Willow Emerald Damselfly
1 Southern Hawker
2 Brown Hawker
2 Common Darter

Beautiful crystal clear and still morning, started at the west end 0600 with numerous sand martins and swallows easier to spot now that the tree has been cut down
The swan was busy at the pintail end today
9 mandarin, 5 mallards and 2 gc grebes on the water
Counted 4 adult terns plus the chicks on the raft, 9 adult BH gulls
2 raptors this morning were a kestral and low goshawk flying over the rafts which set off a lot of alarm
Reed warbler and a very active kingfisher just in front of the hide

Dam end also beautiful
~150+ BH guls, 1 LBB gull and some immature herring gulls (although still working on my gull age ID)
King fisher flew the length of the dam too which I havent seen before
2 c sandpipers and 2 moorhens on the north bank
5 herons on the dam and dotted around the banks
3GC grebes and 5 mallards on the water.

West end

Common Sandpiper,10 Mandarins,4 Coots,Kingfisher,Great Crested Grebe pair with 3 young & 3 Sand Martins dropped in briefly.

West End:- 60 x Greylag Goose, 1 x Mute Swan, 2 x Egyptian Goose, 4 x Mandarin Duck, 5 x Mallard, 3 x Stock Dove, 2 x Eurasian Coot, 11 x Black-headed Gull, 2 x European Herring Gull, 8 x Common Tern, 15 x Great Crested Grebe, 5 x Grey Heron, 1 x Eurasian Sparrowhawk, 2 x Common Buzzard, 1 x Common Kingfisher, 4 x Eurasian Jackdaw, 2 x Rook, 2 x Eurasian Blue Tit, 1 x Common Chiffchaff, 1 x Eurasian Nuthatch, 1 x Eurasian Wren, 2 x European Robin

Quick visit to west end, big difference to view with the tree gone.
2 Coots,Mute Swan,several Mandarins,2 Swalllows,Sparrowhawk and tern chick on far right raft looks to be at almost at fledged stage.It was flapping and lifting up 2 metres or so several times.
Purple Hairstreak in Oak trees.

WeirWood on another bright dawn. At the west end all looked well as normal on the nesting platforms with some very small tern chicks now on one of the platforms. Quite a few Black-headed Gulls around with 34 birds counted, also 11 Great-crested Grebes noted. At the dam a Common Gull was in with the collection of 220 Black-headed Gulls around plus a few Herring Gulls with them. Also on the dam 3 Common Sands and a Dunlin, nicely in summer plumage, dropped in whilst I was here and promptly disappeared south west. A Lapwing was along the north shore plus 4 Mandarins and a Little Egret popped out of the bushes along here. Overhead a Buzzard, a Swift and 2 Barn Swallows. On the dam slope a Green Woodpecker was seen plus a Stock Dove. Below the dam a few Chiffchaffs were noted and a Grey Wagtail on the overflow.

On the dam this morning – 3 common sandpiper, ~150 BH gull, 1 LBB gull, 1 common gull, 1 herring gull, 2 grey wags
7 immature moorhen on the north bank
3 gc grebes on the resivour and 7 herons dotted about.

Dam end from 14:40 to 16:00 1 BH Goose swam SW towards south bank and went out of sight, head marking was good, but it’s back was quite dark so probably a hybrid, 5 C Sandpiper, 133 Herring Gull, 21 LBB Gull, 1 GBB Gull, 140 BH Gull, 2 C Tern, 8 Pied Wagtail, 10 Egyptian Geese, 57 Canada Geese, 2 Swift, 1 Swallow.