Attenborough, 23rd feb

A cold and windy walk was had yesterday around atteborough nature reserve. i always forget how bloody COLD it gets here, very windy. There was plenty of birds about though.

enjoying the free food around the visitor centre was all the usual wildfowl, including the resident Ruddy Shelduck and a surprise for me, a White-cheeked Pintail, a lifer for me!

On the scrapes on tween pond were loads of gulls, as well as 10 Lapwing, a couple of Shelduck and a Grey Heron.

Spent some time watching the feeders from the Kingfisher hide, which were being frequented by large numbers of Great Tits, Dunnocks, Robins and a couple of Chaffinches. The best bit though were the group of around 10 Tree Sparrows, a locally and nationally rare species, and seeing all the birds scatter as a male Sparrowhawk raced out of the bushes to launch a failed attack.

Other birds seen on the way round the reserve were a lot of winter wildfowl - Shoveler, Gadwall, Wigeon and Pochard. The ever-tranquil Delta hide held many of these birds, as well as a Little Grebe.

On the cricket pitch just outside the reserve were a flock of around 50 Goldfinch, making a racket in the hedgerows, and around 30 Redwing and a single Mistle Thrush. There were also a large number of G0osander in various locations across the reserve.