Elvaston Castle

A gorgeous blue sky morning for bird watching, just a light breeze. We gathered in the car park at Elvaston Castle Country Park and set off heading for the park's nature reserve.

Elvaston Castle

We followed the edge of the lake as a guide towards the reserve. On the lake we saw a number of Canada geese, mallard and a coot. Many of the the mallard were already into their eclipse (annual moult), the drakes beginning to lose their colourful identity. 

Mallard

There was still quite a bit of song and calls about, but it was much harder to locate the birds with all the verdant foliage. Several blackcaps were heard along with nuthatches and robins, we did get to spot one of the nuthatches and a female blackcap. Several birds were seen rummaging around the leaf litter-magpie, mistle thrush, and a blackbird.

We reached and entered the nature reserve. We could hear a young heron calling out from the nearby heronry, a small island in the lake. Try as we might, we never did get a view of the young heron, yet it was so near and so very vocal.

Jay

We then followed the path all around the reserve. We spotted jay, song thrush, goldfinch, great tit, blue tit and a few speckled wood butterflies. We left the reserve and headed down the other side of the lake. We spotted two stock doves on the bridge that crossed the lake.  

We then headed for the park cafe for a coffee and a scone. Along the way we saw two hobbies, quite high above the park and several swallows. The hobbies may have been showing an interest in the swallows.

Robin

After refreshment we made our way back to the car park, visiting the walled garden along the way. When we left the garden we spotted goldcrest, house sparrow, long tailed tit, and a fleeting view of a sparrow hawk in a hunting flight, crossing our path. 

The tally: 26 

Crow, blackbird, wren, magpie, mallard, Canada goose, coot, woodpigeon, nuthatch, jackdaw, robin, song thrush, great tit, blue tit, goldfinch, jay, dunnock, mistle thrush, stock dove, hobby, swallow, house sparrow, blackcap, goldcrest, long tailed tit and a sparrow hawk.