Holmebrook Valley Park 13/01/2018

I went down Holmebrook from about 10:20 to 10:50 on Saturday. I am glad I did because there were two Gadwall (Male and female) on the lake. Although they are widespread across central Britain they are still a rarity for Holmebrook Valley and this is only my 2nd record for them here. My previous record was from February 2017 when there was two on the lake in the evening. Although the lake at Holmebrook Valley is not that big, they were still hard to photograph because they swam away from me every time I got close. The dark light didn't help either so here's my record shot.

Apart from that there was just the normal water birds like the Mallards, all 3 Mute Swans and the Greylag Goose that has been here since the 28th of December. There was also still a female Tufted Duck. Gull wise, there wasn't much with only about 30 Black Headed Gulls and 1 Lesser Black Blacked Gull. There also seemed to be quiet a lot of Bullfinches about and I counted at least 7 together at one time. Apart from birds there was also 3 Rats including 2 very confident animals that came within about 20cm of my camera. They were very quick though and were hard to photograph.