This morning I walked to the closest local nature reserve, the romantic named Blue Lagoon Park in Bletchley. I started birding at 10:25 and spent there nearly 2.5 hours. The weather was pleasant and the wind wasn’t that aggressive than as it was yesterday. Apart from the warm spell I had a spring feeling by the lots of singing birds.
Couple new species were seen in 2013 including the first Barn Swallow and Sand Martins, Willow Warblers and Common Chiffchaffs. While the song of spring migrants filled the valley some late winter migrants were still present. I was surprised by a small flock of Common Redpolls feeding on the Willow Trees. I tried to spot an Arctic Redpoll in the flock but all seemed to be Commons. I saw Bullfinches and two Redwings as well.
A Canada Goose and a Eurasian Coot were sitting on nests at the main lake. I saw Dunnocks displaying and pre-mating.
Complete list of birds recorded:
Canada Goose 3
Mute Swan 2
Mallard 2
Great Crested Grebe 1
Eurasian Sparrowhawk 2
Common Buzzard 1
Common Kestrel 1 male
Common Moorhen 2
Eurasian Coot 6
European Herring Gull 8
Lesser Black-backed Gull 4
Common Wood Pigeon 25
Great Spotted Woodpecker 2
Green Woodpecker 2
Common Magpie 6
Eurasian Jackdaw 2
Carrion Crow 8
Sand Martin 2
Barn Swallow 2
Great Tit 8
European Blue Tit 5
Long-tailed Tit 5
Eurasian Wren 8
Willow Warbler 6
Common Chiffchaff 12
European Robin 23
Eurasian Blackbird 15
Redwing 2
Song Thrush 5
Dunnock 4
Reed Bunting 1
Common Chaffinch 2
Eurasian Bullfinch 2
European Greenfinch 2
Common Redpoll 22
European Goldfinch 3
Common Linnet 10
In the evening I revisited the reserve in a hope to see a migrating Eurasian Woodcock or any kind of patrolling owls. None of these species appeared but it was nice to see the bushes full of Common Chifchaffs, Willow Warblers and other newcomers, like Eurasian Blackcap and Garden Warbler. Garden Warbler was singing in the Hawthorn bushes just next to where I was sitting. As I had more time to look around I found incubating Carrion Crows in at least two nests. Rooks, Carrion Crows and Western Jackdaws use the area for night roosting.
At twilight small bats appeared which must have been lifer for me…. Sadly I had no clue of which species I have seen but I felt the same in the morning while looking at the first beautiful butterflies. It is time to get a good field guide for butterflies.
Reference: Gill, F & D Donsker (Eds). 2013. IOC World Bird List (v 3.3). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org [Accessed 15.04.2013].
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