Approaching the end of February a visit to "Mr Bank's Birdland" brought about a couple of signs of the approaching change in seasons. With the mild weather things were on the move and romancing.
My first find was a group of Meadow Pipits feeding on the seeded area not far from the gate. I was able to get a few distant shots and when they took flight I counted 20 birds before they split into groups. A nice start to the morning with a new addition to the year list here.
The Skylarks were very vocal and a couple of pairs were sharing the same seeded area as the Meadow Pipits, the long vegetation nearby hiding their presence until another outburst of song.
During the morning I counted 3 Common Buzzards, with 2 staying very close to the main road. One in particular took a liking to an aerial mast for a perch and despite a bit of balancing looked happy enough there before alighting a road light which was certainly a lot easier to land on.
Previously I had seen a lone Common Shelduck but it did not stay around, on this occasion 1 flew in and landed on the water for some time before it was joined by another, but after a flying a couple of circuits over the main lake it decided to move on taking the first one minutes later.
The Great crested grebes were in courtship mode and were displaying to each other on the smaller lake.
It was whilst watching the Grebes and a single Green sandpiper that I heard an Oystercatcher approaching and after a quick scan I picked it up coming towards the small lake. It did a couple of fly by's before landing out of sight behind the island. But it eventually ventured out and then landed in the nearby grass field to feed before moving to the larger lake. It moved the between the two lakes a couple of times and as I left it was feeding on the grass bank amongst the Canada geese.
Bird species seen: Meadow pipits,Little egret,Little grebe,Green sandpiper,Oystercatcher,Coot,Gadwall,Tufted duck,Shoveler,Teal,Mallard,Pochard,Great crested grebe,Black headed gull,Common gull,Skylark,Blue tit,Great tit,Dunnock,Robin,Greenfinch,Goldfinch,Crow,Rook,Jackdaw,Greylag geese,Canada geese,Buzzard,Kestrel,Reed bunting,Yellowhammer,Pied wagtail,Shelduck,Blackbird,Woodpigeon,Snipe,Magpie,House sparrow,Mute swan. 