A Nice Slice of Home

Popped back home for the weekend to see family as I was passing by and was lucky enough to spend Saturday morning with Dad at Wilstone and College Lake. Although there were no absolutely ripping birds, it was fantastic to go with someone else again - there's something about birding with another person that just beats solo birding hands down!

So we headed to Wilstone Reservoir first, where there had been talk of a female Goosander. Unfortunately she was nowhere to be seen, but we did have good views of a Little Egret, plenty of waterfowl such as Teal (no Green-winged!), Wigeon, Pochard, Tufted Ducks and Great Crested Grebes. There were many Cormorants and Grey Herons in the trees as usual, and due to the high water level, many Lapwing and Black-headed Gulls were very close to the hide. It was good fun looking at all the various stages of development of the gulls on show, with some in almost full summer plumage, and some very obviously young 1st-winter birds. The highlight was the group of (reportedly 8, although we counted 4-5) Snipe, one of which was very close in front of the hide.

We went to College Lake afterwards, where we spent about 10 minutes in the new hide just outside the visitors' centre - racked up a decent 14 species there, including a lovely, if distant, Red Kite, a new one for my year list taking me to 70! We also saw 3 Mute Swans and a Magpie that we hadn't seen at Wilstone.

Lovely day!