Box End Park WeBS: 16/09/2012

It was a strange morning, the lake was very quiet in terms of water birds but a few surprises made up for it in the end. It was a miserable start, overcast and drizzle but the drizzle had died out by the end of the visit so i could dry out a bit.

Highlight of the morning were the 2 Hobbies coming in from the south with one of the birds taking a dive at what I suspect was one of the Grey Wagtails along the east side of the north lake. It missed and they didn't hang around for long. It was also nice to find a Yellow Wagtail in with the Pied's, Linnets and Meadow Pipits over near the main building.

The Grey Wagtail count was high for the site where we sometimes get 1 or 2. All 5 were along the east shore of the north lake doing a spot of fly catching.

Full WeBS submission as follows:

Black-headed Gull 1  
Cormorant 3  
Grey Heron 1  
Grey Wagtail 5  
Hobby 2  
Kestrel 1  
Kingfisher 1  
Lapwing 1  
Linnet 9  
Mallard 31 Plus another 77 over north.
Mandarin Duck 1  
Meadow Pipit 9 Plus 1 over east.
Moorhen 1  
Mute Swan 4  
Pied/White Wagtail 25  
Sparrowhawk 1  
Yellow Wagtail 1  
Total number of species: 17 Individuals: 97

A Little Egret passed through south early on. There was also a small party of House Martins feeding overhead most of the morning. Good numbers of Swallows (~18) were over in the south west corner of the park with another 10 passing through south. 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls passed through, 2 south and 2 east. A Jay was also a noisy visitor.

So all in all a pretty successful morning.