Holmebrook Valley 20 - 23 - 25/02/18

This week I have been down to Holmebrook Valley three times.
On the 20th of February I went down for about an hour. On the lake there was the usual Great Crested Grebe, Mute Swans, 40+ Black-Headed Gulls, a few Mallards, Coots and a couple of Moorhens. The Tufted Ducks were there as usual and I counted 9 of them which I think is a new site record. Also on the lake were two Canada Geese which were new, but no Greylag Goose, although there was one seen at Linacre Reservoirs which would have been the same bird. This bird has flown from Holmebrook Valley to Linacre before as is just about a 5 minute flight for it.

8 of the 9 Tufted Ducks

Both Canada Geese

On the 23rd I went down for about 50 minutes. There was basically the same on the lake but instead there were no Tufted Ducks, no Canada Geese and the Greylag Goose had returned from his/her flight up to Linacre Reservoir. Also on the lake was 1 Common Gull, 2 Cormorants, 1 Great Crested Grebe and about 120 Black-Headed Gulls which was a lot. Unfortunately I couldn't find any ringed gulls but quiet a few of the birds were in breeding plumage and I managed to get some nice photos of one of these birds.

 Also on the 23rd there were 2 Kingfishers calling on the river.

Today the sun was out and it was quiet a nice day so I went down for half and hour. I knew that there had been quiet a few Whooper Swans around South Yorkshire this morning so I kept my fingers crossed that they might fly over to the lake at Holmebrook.
Unfortunately there were no Whoopers on the lake but there were 6 Tufted Ducks, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 3 Mute Swans and about 60 Black-Headed Gulls. Also there were very low numbers of Mallards today with only about 20 - 30 birds present.

2 of the Mute Swans