Starling Murmurations

 

Slavonian Grebe, Covenham Reservoir

 

Not been to Covenham for over a year so a slow drive out today made a change. The car park was busy and a new stile to get in. Can't ever remember the paths being that muddy (or with that much dog poo to avoid). Plenty of people, mostly dog walkers and keep fitters. Eventually finding the Slav in the roughest corner with waves that were making me feel sea sick ! A monochrome bird on grey water on a grey day !  

Great Grey Shrike, Cottam Power Station, Notts

 

A short drive over into North Notts to hopefully see the great grey shrike that has been around Cottam Power Station for over a week now. The drive brought back a few nice memories as we passed Sundown Adventure Park. I had to take Lucy and Tom here many, many times each year, it was their favourite day out. It was called Tresswell Park back in the day.  Good times.

Anyway, onto the shrike. There was just us two there when we arrived and as Simon was putting his boots on, the shrike flew into the dead tree, sitting at the top, giving us some excellent views. Infact, we stayed for a couple of hours and the shrike showed the whole time we were there. Pity it was such a grey day, but the bird made up for that. The shrike favoured the dead tree and the brambles and hawthorn opposite.

We beat a retreat around lunch time as we were going to Lucys for a cuppa. Lucy has been on holiday for well over a week so we could safely visit and drink tea in her garden. So nice to see her and Dottie, who has doubled in size since we last saw her !  

A few from this week

 

We often have a grey wagtail over our house, unusual as we live in quite a built up area but some of the gardens are huge. This one was on a neighbours roof and had recently had a bath so must be visiting a garden pond somewhere close. 

Redpoll

Willow Tit

Kestrel

Chiffchaff

Siskin 

Bullfinch

Crossbills

Whooper Swans

 

Nice to see our Whooper Swans return with 44 there this morning. On a single track road with only a couple of passing paces, parking is not easy and to say it's a road that goes nowhere, there was a never ending stream of traffic both ways. 

Ringtail Hen Harrier, Messingham Nature Reserve

We couldn't decide where to go today and after waiting for the showers to pass over, we thought we wouldn't go far so headed for Messingham Sand Quarry, just a couple of miles up the road. Not many cars in the car park when we arrived, which was good ! Caught up with Ray, not seen him in over a year so plenty of catching up to do. Had a leisurely stroll round and noticed that the visitor numbers were increasing with the afternoon shift coming out. And come out they did, never seen so many people at Messingham, crowds and crowds never stopped coming past us. We saw a family with a dog, not on a lead and barking constantly, could be heard all over the reserve. They saw us watching them, turned round and beat a retreat. A family had come past us earlier, plenty of kids shouting and running everywhere, the adults complete with a full bag of beer had a bottle each, they had started their Sunday afternoon session already. We met these a couple of hours later, still drinking, with all 4 of their children playing hide and seek in the sheep fields. The noise was on a whole new level. People where literally everywhere, lots off the paths, tramping through the woods, definitely not on the path network. Anyway, have reported all this to the Lincs Trust. 

But, inbetween stepping aside for the crowds to come past us we spotted a raptor being harassed, looking up imagine our shock when we saw it was a ringtail, which we both shouted out together !  Apart from the people, it was an absolutely brilliant afternoon.