We arrived at the reserve to bright sunshine but with a chilling breeze. We then made our way from the car park towards the visitor centre for some warming refreshment.
As we strolled along the path by the lake we saw blackbird, teal, great crested grebe, mute swan, cormorant, crow, mallard, and greylag geese. As we neared the visitor centre a large number of ducks were loitering near the bridge, a favourite feeding station. A couple of Egyptian geese were in the vanguard, one had a very full crop as pictured below.
Egyptian goose.
After our hot drinks we went to the children's area out the back of the centre. A surprising variety of birds were visiting the feeders, blue tit, great tit, chaffinch, tree sparrow, and green finch. There were also Egyptian geese, a moorhen and a Canada goose feeding on the spill off underneath the feeders, nothing was going to waste.
Tree sparrow
Blue tit and greenfinch
We could hear a Cetti's warbler in the nearby bramble but, as ever, it was playing hard to spot. We made our way back through the visitor centre and out to the main ponds.
As we proceeded we spotted a wren, dunnock and a very friendly robin. It is difficult to distinguish the sex of robins but in the photo below there is a clear V shaped peak along the brow line which is a female attribute- the male has a straight brow. This is much harder to distinguish on live birds as they don't normally co-operate but this robin allowed us to get close up and personal.
A female robin
We reached the first screen overlooking Tween Pond. Through the screen we could see gadwall, little grebe, northern shoveller, lapwing, cormorants and black headed gulls.
Gadwall
Further along the path we headed left to the elevated hide overlooking Clifton Pond. On the path to the hide we spotted several wigeon and a family of long tailed tits.
The view from the hide was expansive but the sun was shimmering on the water right behind the birds, obscuring the detail. Despite this we could see some goosander and two, uncommon, ruddy shelducks. There were many other birds spread right across the pond but none that we hadn't already noted as far as we could see.
We left the hide and made our way right around the bottom of the pond beside a stretch of the River Trent. We heard another Cetti's warbler along the way but this time we got a fleeting view of the bird, albeit through a hawthorn bush- it is definitely a plain brown jobbie! A number of goldfinches were also seen and the very red head of a cock pheasant was also spotted poking out from an area of tall grass.
We finished our stroll back at the visitors centre for a well earned warm up and a light lunch. A good number of species were spotted.
The tally: 37 species
Blackbird, teal, great crested grebe, mute swan, cormorant, carrion crow, jackdaw, mallard, tufted duck, greylag goose, black headed gull, blue tit, great tit, moorhen, chaffinch, greenfinch, wren, tree sparrow, robin, coot, dunnock, gadwall, little grebe, northern shoveler, lapwing, long tailed tit, wigeon, goosander, ruddy shelduck, magpie, ruddy duck, starling, heron, goldfinch, Cetti's warbler, pheasant and song thrush.
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