Friday 22nd September 2017

Hobby over the Cobham Hide

Today was an absolute treat. Autumn colours starting to show, water levels just right and still some insects on the wing. Work on the Kingfisher Hide bridge completed. It is now open for use. 

Cobham Hide: Otter sighting at lunchtime. Hobby overhead (it flew behind a tree hence the poor photo.)

Heronry South: Great white egret, little egret x 2, little grebe x 4, great crested grebes, moorhens, coots, shovellers, widgeon, pochard, gadwall, mallard, tufted duck, greylag, Canada geese, mute swans,  b.h.gulls, grey herons, cormorants, stock doves.

Hayden Hide: Ivy bee colony in gravel, common darter, migrant hawker and brown hawker, speckled wood, small white, red admiral. Brown rat and grey squirrel. Wood pigeon and collared dove, great tit and blue tit, robin, dunnock, blackbird, long-tailed tit.  Buzzard x 2.

Brown rat at the Hayden Hide.

Car park: Adult male peregrine at 19:30, hunting edge of Weedy pit. Great views, but no camera handy.

9th to 20th September

Water levels on the heronry lakes have remained low, but not as low as in previous weeks. All the same, there are still exposed islands and shallows that suit egrets and dabbling ducks while the deeper parts are easy to access for the grebes and diving ducks such as pochards that are arriving right now.

11th September: 2x little egret, 70x gadwall, 3x little grebe, 2x teal, 15x widgeon. Heronry South.(Trevor Gunton)

13th: Hobby, great white egret, kingfisher, swallows, sand martins and house martins, speckled wood, red admiral, common darter. Heronry Lakes (JAS) Plus kingfisher x 2 widgeon x 8 common gull x 2. (DR)

14th: Pochard x 8 (ES)

15th: Red crested pochard (fm), kingfisher x 2, Little grebe x 2+, buzzard, sparrowhawk, kestrel. (Jo Thomas)

Mink crossed the haul road by the visitor centre. (CETT)
At Cobham Hide: Kingfisher, robin, long-tailed tit, pied wagtail. (Jeff Davison).

16th: Two newts, a frog and 3 toads. (AM and L Nevard)

20th: Passage of swallows (c 50) over the visitor centre at dusk.

August 31st to September 8th 2017

August 31st:      Marsh harrier and osprey over. (Russell Leavett)

September 2nd: 3 buzzards on River Trail (ES)

September 3rd: Black necked grebe at PHP (MD)

September 4th: Blue tit 7, robin, wood pigeon, house sparrow. (Lucy Thomson)
                         3 + Little Egrets, buzzard, Shield bugs, common carder bee. (GFS)
                         2 little grebes on Heronry South (JAS)

September 5th; Water rail on shore of Heronry North. (JAS) Common darters, emperor
                          and migrant hawkers on the wing. Report of Death's Head
                          Hawk Moth (unconfirmed).
                          Jays on Haul Road and car park, 2 barnacle geese on Heronry South. (GF)
                          4 widgeon (TG)