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Saturday 12 December 2015

Wet Water Park

Yesterday another trip to The Cotswold Water Park and today it lived upto its name.

WIth the forcast looking ok we set out finding Red crested pochard on the first lake with a couple of tufted duck mixed in also a lone pochard.

Moving along the path a couple of goldcrest showed well with several great and blue tits in toe.

This is when the rain moved in with several prolonged spell of heavy rain, soaked but still undetered we carried on picking up a couple of very confiding chiffchaffs chasing each other around a small bush on the lakes edge.

At the next lake three male goosander were found through the gloom as we look out over the lake.

Next we headed for the shelter of the hides and with patient were rewarded with fantastic views of a kingfisher fishing from both high and low branches, after about ten minutes and about four attempts he final caught a small fish and flew off out of sight.

Next stop the cafe for a hot drink and a bacon butty!

The afternoon had started to brighten up so off again to check some of the larger lakes, we soon added several duck species to the list with Shoverler, gadwall, mallard and wigeon all being seen at close range.

Moving to an area of overgrown vegetation we saw a small flock of birds moving along the top of the seeding plants and with closer inspection turned out to be a charm of goldfinches also mixed in we picked out half a dozen redpoll which moved closer to us giving some superb views of this tiny bird.

At our final stop we enjoyed a fantastic sunset watching the rooks and jackdaws flying noisily in to roost for the evening.

Other birds of note include both great spotted and green woodpeckers, redwing, fieldfare, little grebe, bullfinch, three little egrets and a sparrowhawk dashed across the lake.

Just goes to show don't let the rain put you off nature still goes about its business. DT

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