Holmebrook Valley Monthly update

Since the end of October there has been quite a few different birds turning up on the lake at Holmebrook Valley.

On the 31st of October there was a male Teal which was first found at the north east end of the lake. This is my first Teal at Holmebrook since October 2017 so I expecting one. The bird was very shy and didn't come in very close, but with some persistence I managed a very badly let shot of him. 

Male Teal

Also on the 31st I had my first Common Gull of this winter. Unfortunately it didn't stick around and left very quickly so I only managed a record flight shot.

Common Gull

On the 6th of November there was a lovely male Pochard on the lake which was a first for the site for me. With the him there was a female Tufted Duck and they spent most of the time I was there in the middle of the lake.

Pochard and Tufted Duck

Also on the 6th I managed to find not one, but two Water Rails in the reeds at the bottom end of the lake. Not only was this the best Water Rail count for the site, but also my first since the 11th of November 2017. The birds were being very vocal but one was only seen twice.

Water Rail record shot

At least one Water Rail has been present calling in the same area within the last week and was there again today.

One of the Mute Swan cygnets had disappeared on the 6th but I now know it was taken away by the RSPCA because of lead poisoning (See post HERE). Hopefully it will get well enough to be returned. 

Also seen on the 6th was a Herring Gull. These can be seen around Chesterfield sometimes, but are still infrequent on the lake at Holmebrook. The bird was with 5 Lesser Black-Backed Gulls and 69 Black-Headed Gulls.

Herring Gull 3cy

Lesser Black-Backed Gull 2cy

Away from birds, there was a Common Darter flying around the bottom end of the lake on the 6th, which is now my latest record of any species of dragonfly.

On the 8th I found an American Mink at the bottom end of the lake which at the time, I presumed was why the Mute Swan cygnet had disappeared. I have reported the Mink but have not seen it since.

Mink

Also on the 8th there were two Goosanders (Male and female).

Goosanders

Since the 8th not much else has appeared on the lake apart from all the Mute Swans yesterday (See post HERE). Both Great Crested Grebes are still on the lake and numbers of Moorhens, Coots and Mallards have stayed roughly the same. I have heard the Kingfisher a few times on the river but it has not yet moved onto the lake as it did last year.

London 20/01/18 - 21/01/18

I was in London this weekend with family and friends so I didn't get to go down to Holmebrook Valley but whilst visiting all the tourist sights I managed to see a few birds and get some year ticks.

The first place we went to was Westminster to see Big Ben although it was covered in scaffolding so we couldn't see it very well. Every time I go there I always have a look on the roof of the boat station on the River Thames, for ringed Black Headed Gulls but every time it has been without success. This time there were about 20 on the roof and I scanned through them all and managed to get a bird with a metal ring, but unfortunately it was too far away to read.

                                                         Ringed Black Headed Gull
Apart from that, it was very wet and there was nothing else about so we headed of to see Buckingham Palace and on the way we went through St James Park. On the lake there were many captive ducks and geese but I also managed to find two Little Grebes and two Great Crested Grebes which were both year ticks. Walking down the lake I noticed two colour ringed Coots. I only managed to get the ring code of one as they were fast and it was chucking it down.

                                              Ringed Coot. White with black writing HAN

*Update* The Coot was ringed 5 days before in the same location. My record was the first since then.

Other birds seen round the lake were two Grey Herons, lots of Black Headed Gulls, one Common gull, a few Herring Gulls and Ring Necked Parakeets (Year tick) which were heard and seen everywhere.

                                                         One of the two Grey Herons

                                                               Three captive Pelicans

The next day we spent most of the day in the Natural History Museum but on the journey from Deptford Bridge, where we stayed, we stopped of at Canary Wharf to swap from the DLR to the Underground Jubilee line. I had a look on Heron Quay just round the corner and found two Great Crested Grebes, two Cormorants and two Shags.

                                                   One of the two Great Crested Grebes

One last bird I saw was a Common Gull that was on the River Thames by the Cutty Sark ship in Greenwich whilst it was snowing.

Holmebrook Valley Park 14/01/18

I went down to the lake at Holmebrook Valley for about 45 minutes yesterday. There were certainly a few more gulls that the day before with about 70 to 80 Black Headed Gulls on the water. I had a quick scan through the flock and found a Common Gull, 1 adult Lesser Black Backed Gull and 2 young gulls. I am not very good at identifying young gulls but I presume that they were either Lesser Black Backed or Herring Gull. I would prefer Herring Gull as they are not very common on the lake. As luck would have it, an adult Herring Gull landed on the lake at 12:15. That means I got 4 species of gull in one day which is good for Holmebrook Valley.

Here's one of the young gulls which is either Herring or Lesser Black Backed. Any suggestions are welcomed.

Apart from the gulls there was now a new Canada Goose on the lake. The bird was very shy and wouldn't come to seed like the local swans. There were also two male and a female Tufted Ducks today instead of just a female. The Greylag Goose and the Mute Swans were still there as normal and one of the Kingfishers was back on the lake after not being seen for a few days, although it was not being very photogenic and was flying away regularly.

                                            All three Tufted Ducks and the Canada Goose.

On my last post I mentioned that there seemed to be a lot of Bullfinches about and today there was even more and I managed to count at least 20 in two flocks.

One last photo for today. This is one of the cygnets from last years brood that survived, looking all grown up with adult feathers come through on its wings.