Plenty of interest on the main lake early on, in strong contrast to late morning when four double kayaks paddled through the winter wildfowl exclusion zone (almost every thing left!! including the gulls!!). 30 Cormorants, 14 Wigeon, a female R-C Pochard, ~30 Gadwall, ~100 Coot, 8 Tufted, an increasing number of 'straight' Pochard, Great Crested Grebe, Lesser Black-back, Herring, Common & Black-headed Gulls. In contrast, there was little on Fingers apart from 2 Cormorant, 7 Shoveler and 3 Little Grebe. We only noticed about 4 different Grey Herons all morning.
Wattle & daub shelter under construction.
Eventually, we made it to the 'rough'. The female rangers are in the process of constructing a wattle and daub shelter for the school kiddies, with a reed thatched roof. It's to provide shelter from the sun or rain (H&S ?), but more likely to be used for nefarious purposes until some bright "spark" comes along! I hope the "long hedge" survives; it's our best leading line for migrants into the main ringing area.
Ed was ringing this morning and by the time we rolled up he had caught 20 birds in his 3 nets. He was able to show us a Great Spot, a 1CY SongThrush (possibly an immigrant) and a "this year's" female Great Tit, explaining how he had aged and sexed the birds.
The rest of the walk was rather uneventful; no Siskin flock found, 3 more juvenile Cormorants, a fly-by Kingfisher, a couple of skulking Teal ... and those blessed canoeists!
Now I'm off to pack the garden furniture, empty my desk and disconnect the computer and all the secondary bits and pieces. Back on line next Thursday - if BT keeps its promise. Swapping town for country, Mbps will crash, especially during peak periods, something I don't suffer on cable!
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