25th January - still cold, but much more open water than my last visit on Tuesday. I made a morning visit today. The 3 drake Pintail were still happily up-ending on the nearside of the base of the spit and good numbers of dabblers are still present, but still very few diving duck.
I decided to do a circuit to try and get some of the commoner species I was missing so far this year. In the small reed bed by the picnic bench on the NW side a Water Rail showed pretty well, clambering through the sparse reed stems and eventually swimming to further cover. Best of all though, on the northern side of the lake, I came across not 1 but 2 Woodcock. Unfortunately, I didn't see them on the ground, as they both flushed, but they both only flew short distances to further cover so hopefully weren't too put out by the experience. Woodcock are reported here occasionally during the Winter and are probably present more often than seen, but this was a patch tick for me, so very pleased. A Treecreeper was a further year tick.
As I walked back to the car, a Nuthatch flew over and I watched it descend towards the lakeside cottages. A quick walk to view the garden feeders found it feeding on the nut feeder - I struggle with this species here and only saw 1 bird last year, so another pleasing year tick.
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