After about 2 minutes of walking I realised I had somehow managed to forget to bring my pair of binoculars, which is never really a great thing to forget for birdwatching. And I really could have done with wearing another layer as the temperature really struggled to rise in the morning. So it wasn't the greatest start to the walk it has to be said. In the end I decided I would just walk round and use my camera to take a record shot of anything that was too far away to identify, which, as it turned out worked fine really.
I was half expecting to see the Redwings near my halls as I had done for the couple of days previous to this walk, but they've literally all gone, which came as a bit of a surprise. With the cloudy conditions, I wasn't really going to be getting any better photos of them but it would have been nice to see them again. I wonder if the reason why they were feeding so frantically the day before was preparation for the migration back to the continent, although it is still a little early for this you might think.
So anyway I moved onwards to the other side of campus and started walking round the lake. The usual species were present, such as Canada Goose, Mallard, Mandarin, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhens, Coots and Black-headed Gulls, although no sign of the Egyptian Geese which usually patrol the edges of the lake. Didn't take many photos at all but a couple of the ones I managed are below. Firstly a couple of shots of a Canada Goose...
And a male Mallard...
There was a reasonable amount of activity in the trees surrounding the lake, with flocks of tits and finches roaming around above my head. Towards the end of the walk around the lake I came across the flock of Siskins that have been hanging around campus for a while now. Their unique calls and busy nature are always good to watch.
Fairly nearby to where I saw the flock of Siskins I managed to see the unmistakeable flash of blue and orange of a Kingfisher flying low over the water surface- the second sighting of one since Christmas. They're supposedly quite unusual visitors to the lake so it's been good to have two sightings in a relatively short period of time.
I then wandered through the woodland area for a little while, keeping my eyes peeled for a sighting of the Firecrest but I didn't see it anywhere. I'm assuming it's still around but I could be wrong. I also didn't see the Treecreeper which I've seen on my last couple of visits to the woodland. There were however a few Goldcrests and lots of Wrens about. Also as per usual, 3 or 4 Nuthatch sightings throughout the woodland walk. Also came across a pair of Goldfinches and lots of Chaffinches. The Great Tits were very vocal as usual and lots were about. Not long after I started walking through the woodland, alarm calls sounded from all over the place and a male Sparrowhawk could be seen flying fast through the trees. Carrion crows and a couple of Red Kites could also be seen overhead.
As I walked over to the Harris Garden area, I heard a very vocal Great Spotted Woodpecker, which I only actually saw after a couple of minutes of listening to it. The first two species I saw after walking through the gates to the Harris Garden were a few Magpies and Jays, birds which seem to like the open space of the gardens compared with the tree cover in the woodland. Lots of small birds were around too, including this badly photographed Robin:
I decided to call it a day not long after taking the photo above as it was really quite chilly and I had pretty much looked around the whole area. I saw 29 species throughout the walk which isn't too bad as I wasn't out for too long. I do hope this weather improves a bit over the next week or so, this cold spell has been such an unwelcome change from the warm sunny weather we were having the week before.
Anyway, thanks for reading my aimless ramblings and have a great week :D
2 comments:
Another enjoyable post Joe though it's a shame you didn't manage to spot the Firecrest (a bird I haven't seen yet).
It's certainly very cold and dull at the moment though I think the forecast is looking more promising for the rest of the week :-)
Hi Wold Ranger,
Thank you very much for the comment. Yes it was a shame not to see the Firecrest again but I can hardly complain as it was fantastic to see a bird as uncommon as that on a university campus. Maybe I'll come across it again before too long. Hopefully you manage to see one at some point too.
Ah that's good to hear, could do with some sunshine for the start of March :)
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