First signs of spring in the water park

Today saw us in the Water park for a morning visit.

Looking around some of the older lakes it was noticeable that a lot of the ducks had moved on with the temperature now on the rise.

Birds seen at our first stop include several Goldeneye along with Goosander, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Red Crested Pochard and a pair of Great Crested Grebes performing their elaborate courtship dance a joy to see at this time of year.

On our walk to our next stop we encountered several Song Thrush singing from the tree tops also lots of Robins, Wrens and Dunnock all looking at setting up thier territories ready for the breeding season.

Stopping near a small wooded area both Great spotted and Green Woodpecker where seen and heard with the Great spotted seen drumming on a dead tree.

Checking some of the Ivy covered trees we found a couple of tiny Goldcrest giving some close views as they flitted about catching tiny insects.

Our next lake seemed a bit quiet today with only a single Goosander showing close in, then a flash of blue shot passed us and flew across the lake one of two Kindfishers seen today.

Retracing our steps we found a single Redpoll along with several Reed Buntings and a couple of Bullfinches also several Chiffchaffs and a Cettis Warbler were heard calling.


Just before moving on from here we noticed a small brown animal moving on the track in front of us this turned out to be a Weasel and we watched it for a couple of minutes has it moved off down the path, Great to see these tiny mammals so close.

Scanning out over the largest lake we visited today we some found a fine male Scaup sitting in the sunshine on the far back, not that common in the water park and always a joy to see.

With a few bees out on the wing and a sighting of a Comma butterfly you can tell that spring is in the air.

Later in the day I checked a lake on my way home and found an Otter fishing out in the middle which I had some good views of as it dived down hunting for prey.

A great start to spring we are really looking forward to a wildlife packed time ahead. DT

CWP is the place to be!

We are getting more and more people enjoying the Cotswold Water Park, where despte the levels of development going on and the very limited number of lakes being saved for wildlife, the nature still hangs on. 

We started in Neigh Bridge car park where we managed fleeting glimpses of siskin in the alder trees, in the area also were blue tit , great tit, robin, wren and blackbird.

male blackbird

We worked our way along the edge of the main road, where we watched goldfinch also feeding on alders and a very showy male dunnock proclaiming his ownership of a stretch of hedgerow.

On the first lake we saw some red-crested pochard resplendent with their ginger afro haircuts. Also present were two female goosander, great crested grebe several tufted duck, cormorant, coot and mute swan.

As we headed on down the lane we picked up a male chaffinch feeding on the path in front of us,  long-tailed tit and goldcrest.

We crossed the river Thames on the footbridge and worked our way along to the viewing point of the next lake. Here we saw the male scaup, also present and new for us were mallard, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull, common gull and black-headed gull. 

We quickly moved onto the next lake where we saw a great selection of duck and were a little more sheltered from the windy conditions. We added pochard, gadwall, wigeon, little egret and grey heron to the species list as well as seeing close views of great crested grebe, tufted duck and coot. We watched the gadwall and wigeon pinching weed from the coot each time they bobbed back to the surface!

We then headed through the woodland along the river Thames where we heard a few things, but didn’t see much! We heard the male bullfinch doing his ‘meep meep’ Roadrunner song, the raucous call of a pair of jay, a very loud and elusive great spotted woodpecker, a flyover kingfisher and we did just about see the song thrush singing beautifully in the late morning.

We headed out of the woods and the kingfisher put in another all to brief cameo as it shot into the distance.

As we crossed the open ground towards our next lake we had great views of male and female reed bunting and several meadow pipit.

meadow pipit

We headed over to a large lake with islands where we had great views of tufted duck, pochard, wigeon, great crested grebe and the cormorant starting to spring clean their nest sites in the trees.

Similar species at the nest lake, but on the way back along the track we had some brilliant views of a female sparrowhawk as she headed purposefully through a woodland and across a lake. A mistle thrush headed past us at this point.

As we turned the next corner we picked up a male treecreeper singing and moving around the trees, closely followed by point blank views of a pair of goldcrest displaying, the male with his orangey-yellow crest raised!

A few redwing were moving around the trees where we saw the crayfish remains and otter spraints.

We then worked our way along the edge of our last lake where we saw a male shoveler hiding in cover at the edge of the lake, finally heading back to the car park - a great day!

A more showy male shoveler

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Looking for new tour venues

Otmoor RSPB Reserve in Oxfordshire

Both myself and Nick are always on the lookout for some new and exciting venues for our tours.

So a visit to the Oxfordshire sight proved to be very interesting.

This reserve would work as a summer or winter tour venue as the potential to see various birds at different times of the year would be appealing.

On our trip several different raptors were observed with two Peregrines giving some wonderful fly pasts. With several other species on offer including Hen and Marsh Harrier, Sparrowhawk, Merlin, Short eared Owl and Red kite along with some very close up views of wildfowl this would make for an interesting tour.

Also here now are Bitterns which are seen very often along with several different wader species.

In winter the reedbeds are home to a large Starling roost which always ends the day on a good note.

So a summer visit to see how the things look then and this could well be our next new tour location.

Other areas we are also looking at are the wonderful RSPB Reserve at Arne and also Studland bay both in Dorset.

DT/NA

Two Winter tours at The Cotswold Water Park

Cotswold Water Park.

With the weather not looking good we started out at one of the smaller reserves within the park, giving us an option to dive into one of the hides if the rain became to persistent.

There were lots of small birds around the feeders with Reed Buntings, Bullfinch, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, both Blue and Great Tit along with a single Chiffchaff chasing insects.

Just before leaving the hide with the weather improving a Kingfisher landed in the tree just yards from the hide giving a brief but very close view always good to see at close range.

Walking around the lakes a pair of Goosander were fishing on the water along with a couple of Cormorants, as we walked around a Great Spotted Woodpecker was seen flying in the treetops and the yaffaling call of a Green Woodpecker was heard in the distance.

A final quick look from the hide found a Roe Deer and a Fox on the middle island.

After lunch we explored a different area with several groups of Redwing and Fieldfare being seen along with Blackbird and Song Thrush.

Out on the water several duck species were seen including Tufted Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler,  Wigeon, Goldeneye along with several Great Crested Grebe.

On the walk back a Sparrowhawk flew overhead at close range and checking out the evergreen trees we found a couple of tiny Goldcrest feeding on the very outside of the tree, again giving some wonderful views which we watched for about ten minutes as they went about their feeding totally oblivious of us standing there this was the best views we have had of this tiny bird.

With the weather not great today we still saw some wonderful wildlife with our guests highlight being the tiny Goldcrest at such close range.

It just goes to show that you should not be put of by the weather we still managed 45 species of bird and a couple of mammals. DT.

More people than birds on CWP Walk!

One of the things we do that we don't always talk about is helping to promote the Cotswold Water Park (CWP) to a wider audience.

This usually takes the form of leading walks for the Cotswold Water Park Trust. These are for anybody to turn up on the day, there's a small charge by the CWP Trust but that's it. We vary the target species and the one on last weekend was for wintering birds.

Its a good job we both went as there were 45 of us on the walk!

We saw a great selection of waterfowl, including many goosander, the males looking resplendent in the winter sunshine. On one lake there 141 red-crested pochard, which is around one quarter of the UK population!

Male goosander

A lovely male bullfinch sat hardly ten metres from us eating berries from a bush.

The best however was kept to last with five smew seen on the same lake - including a fantastic male, certainly my favourite duck and its hard to disagree when you get a good view of him!

Two male and a female smew from a previous visit

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Magical moment!

I was recently on a Wiltshire farm leading a trip for the Wiltshire Ornithological Society (WOS), when the following happened.

I had just shut the gate having let the group in and was just heading along the track to catch them up when out of the corner of my eye I saw a kestrel hovering. On this farm this is by no means an unusual sight, but this was different.

This bird was only just the other side of the fence and at about two metres height, in total I couldn’t have been more than ten metres away.

In this one you can see the tiny whiskers around the face.

I turned out the engine and coasted alongside, undid the passenger window and managed to get a couple of pictures, I watched the bird for a while, wings twitching and tail twisting to keep it in the exact spot, the head and body stock still. For a moment it was just the kestrel and me…..ooops the group! I headed off without flushing her and met the group, I forgot about the pictures until I got home.

 

I love this one! The body absolutely still, but this the wings blurred to keep her still and the tail twisting.

 A truly magical moment! (NA)

Late Autumn at the Cotswold Water Park

We started in Neigh Bridge car park where we managed to get views of a grey wagtail and a blue tit. We then headed over to the edge of the first lake where a great crested grebe was resting and a moorhen was looking lost in the middle of the lake. In the bushes here we saw our first redwing, blackbird and an all too brief view of two mistle thrush. We also briefly saw robin, wren and goldcrest. We headed along the road and had the first of many very brief views of song thrush and bullfinch as they quickly disappeared!

On the next lake we saw a large flock of red-crested pochard, also present were cormorant, coot and mute swan. As we headed on down the lane we picked up dunnock, jackdaw, magpie and carrion crow. We also started bumping into mixed tit flocks and were lucky enough to see more goldcrest as well as great tit, long-tailed tit and chiffchaff. We also managed to see a great spotted woodpecker, woodpigeon, treecreeper, fieldfare, jay and an all too brief view of a goldfinch and chaffinch.

At the big lake with the housing at the back we managed to add teal, tufted duck, wigeon, pochard, black-headed gull and common gull to our fast growing list.

We moved on to the next lake seeing more robin and long-tailed tit as we did. At the next lake with the recently cleared viewing area we had views of little egret, grey heron, gadwall, mallard and shoveler and a kingfisher tried to slip by without us seeing it, it didn't quite manage it!

We headed over to a large lake with islands where we had great views of tufted duck, great crested grebe and cormorant in their day roost in the trees.We then worked through the scrub seeing more redwing, blackbird, song thrush and robin. Some careful searching gave us clear signs of otters in the are with spraints and food remains being found.

Then onto the next lakes where we saw a group of goosander as well as more gadwall, moorhen, coot and tufted duck.  We continued to see redwing flushing ahead of us, as well as song thrush and more elusive bullfinches. We worked our way back through the scrub to the road where we had great views of a great spotted woodpecker at the top of a tree.

A great walk with the bushes full of thrushes and the lakes starting to fill up with waterfowl of many species!

(NA)