Shipley Park

A fine weather start and not too cold for our visit to Shipley Park. Very little breeze about, and occasional sunshine peeping through the cloud cover.

We gathered at the visitors centre and set off towards Osborne's Pond stopping a while at the small garden next to the centre. We saw great tit, dunnock, blackbird and blue tit around the garden.

We strolled on towards the pond, spotting magpie, wood pigeon, crow, robin, and a small flock of fieldfare. When we reached Osborne's Pond we could see mallard, tufted duck, black-headed gull, mute swan, Canada geese, muscovy duck, coot and moorhen. We then had a change of direction and set off along Shipley Lane towards Mapperley Reservoir, stopping off along the way for some welcome refreshment at Derby Lodge.

Cormorant

We reached Mapperley Reservoir and walked along the bank in the direction of the visitors centre. We could see, black-headed gulls, tufted duck, great crested grebe, cormorant and quite a number of goosander. We then made our way back to the visitors centre and home. A couple of ducks on Mapperley Reservoir stood out but were too distant to identify clearly at the time. On close inspection of photos at home these were seen to be shovelers.  

Great crested grebe

Micro-Lite circling the park

The tally: 22 species

Wood pigeon, robin, kestrel, magpie, crow, great tit, blackbird, dunnock, blue tit, fieldfare, mute swan, Canada goose, mallard, muscovy duck, coot, moorhen, black-headed gull, tufted duck, goosander, cormorant, great crested grebe and shoveler.