KEEPING WARM

The cold weather on Sunday 6th had this lapwing standing over her 3 very young chicks to keep warm and dry. The winds today were particularly cold coming from the north.

One of the lapwing chicks was running around the grass close to the hedge, where I was able to get some sort of photo through my binoculars. It seems as though this family have managed to skirt round the pools since yesterday to feed along the southern edge instead of the northern edge, maybe to get further away from the foxes and kestrels nesting in the nearby tree.

Five greylag geese were feeding at the pools as is often the case each spring. Another digi-binned photo above of one of the geese.
Also seen here were common sandpiper for the second day, 40 black-tailed godwits, bar-tailed godwit, wigeon and 12 teal.

At the Point ringed plovers were on their two nests trying to keep their eggs warm. On the nearby mud 30 ringed plover, 40 dunlin, 3 bar-tailed godwit, 6 common terns, 6 whimbrel, 10 curlew, 2 little egrets, grey heron, 3 great crested grebes and a sparrowhawk were all noted.

On Saturday 5th a greenshank at the Point, common sandpiper on the pools, willow warbler singing in the park while on the pond were 20 tufted ducks and 2 pochard.

On Friday 2 Mediteranean gulls flew past the park calling, a group of 12 swifts flew over the car park while a cuckoo calling was the first one heard at the park