An afternoon at the lakes

Here are a few photos from a couple of hours that I spent walking around the lakes, whilst Holly was at the Wildlife Explorers group.

Egyptian goose - one of five on the northern side of Ferry Lagoon

Great Crested Grebe - on the river

Female Hairy Dragonfly - Oxholme Drain

Black-winged Stilt

I had a county first today in the form of this fantastic Black-winged Stilt at Wicken Fen.

Read about it on the Outside the Patch page.

Goldfinch

A nice adult Goldfinch was on the nyjer seed this morning.

Birthday Birding

A summary of my day out is on the Outside the Patch page.

A few signs of spring

I haven't posted anything for a while, so here are a few photographs from Saturday afternoon's walk around Fen Drayton Lakes.
We dropped Holly off at her Wildlife Explorers Group and took Jet for a walk around Ferry Lagoon, along the river, down the western side of Drayton Lagoon to Moore Lake & back along the Busway. It was relatively quiet for birds, but there were some nice signs of the approaching spring.

Willow catkins

As well as the willows, the hazels also have catkins. Many species of tree are in bud, ready to burst into leaf any day now and there is a small amount of blackthorn blossom showing too.

Signs of spring - willow catkins & poplar buds next to the river, with Holywell church in the background

 When we got back to the Discovery Zone, the Wildlife Explorers had been very busy making wildlife art from natural materials found around the reserve. Here are some of their efforts:

A log garden

Decorating the log pile

A snail made of snail shells - this was Holly's

A nest

Lizard - I love the catkin tail bands

Lizard - head on view

Harlequin Duck

Another successful long-distance twitch, this time for a drake Harlequin Duck. Read about it on the Outside the Patch page.

Harlequin Duck - not my photo!

1000 page views

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Always happy to hear what you think about the blog.

Andy