With a nice clear brisk day it seemed like a good idea to go for a walk around the lakes at Rickmansworth.
Bury Lake by the car park had its usual collection of mute swan, mallard, tufties and gadwall. At a distance away in the trees was what sounded like a ring necked parakeet but it was heading away so I didn't get a view. Moving onto the north side of Stockers Lake the low sun and clear sky made visibility difficult. The open water seemed pretty clear anyway but I couldn't make out any details although from the calls it was clear that there were no wigeon present this time.
Once I reached the west side things became clearer. Come of the smnaller islands had been cleared of trees and undergrowth to make them suitable for ground nesting birds. A flock of around 30 lapwing were well hidden until they suddenly took to the air and spent several minutes wheeling around the lake before returning to land swooping past an inpurtbable heron.
This more than made up for the lack of common pochard and wigeon which I was expecting but better was to come. Just around the corder was a small party of red crested pochard with 5 drakes and 2 ducks huddled in the shelter of one of the islands.
It always helps to pay attention to what other birders are looking at, especially one using a camera with a lens bigger tham most telescopes! A goldeneye was very considerately posing to give is his best profile as shown in all good field guides. Further along the path was another goldeneye and with the sun behind me a fair sized party of shoveller with the plumage showing up very nicely.
At least one brood of starlings have been regular visitors to the feeder and today the fledglings got the hang of taking the food for themselves. Other broods must be less developed as adults were still taking away quantities of fat. The tits aren't so common at the moment, I don't know if this is because they have dispersed, if wild food is available or if pressure from the starlings has driven them off. Single blue tits are dropping in fairly regularly and a coal tit took fat away as well. The woodpecker seems to have become a regular visitor and still has a brood to feed. He definitely comes before the starlings in the pecking order and keeps them off the feeder until he has finished. The new feeder with perching rings is popular with the chaffinches and the goldfinches, the latter suddenly seem to prefer the high energy mix to the nyjer seed. With all this demand for feeding young ones the fat is going down very rapidly and I am putting larger quantities out on the ground t...
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