Bestwood CP

I visited bestwood CP a few times last year, but hadn't been here since november so thought it was time for another visit, so hopped on a tram with fred to check it out.

Its a big old place with lots to see, there's the woodland and meadows at leen pastures, woods and water at mill lakes, the HUGE expanse of old mining land at the pit tip, and then a massive patch of ancient woodland, dominated by oak and birch, the southernmost tip of sherwood forest. Taking in all of this, it took around 4 hours to wander the whole thing.

Started off not really seeing much of interest, apart from a flock of house sparrows near the tram bridge along with plenty of passerines about and lots of birds on the lakes. A peek through my bins towards some alder on an island in the lake produced a sighting of about 1oo Lesser redpoll, a good year tick, which were spooked by something and flocked about for a while which was nice to see.

About 20 Goldfinch were seen on the path to the pit tip, there's a very good population of these charming birds at the park. A Green Woodpecker was spotted flying over the pit tip, and a further 2 were heard calling. A single Kestrel was seen hunting though it was very far away.

Ended up in the woods, not expecting to see much, but it ended up being a little bit surprising really. Within the space of a few minutes, i saw a Treecreeper, a Nuthatch and best of all, 2 Firecrest! Thought they were goldcrest to begin with, but after watching them for a while all the 'jizz' matched up to confirm that these were 2 firecrests, locally and nationally rare birds! Talk about woodland specialists!!! An owl was heard 'whining' from low in the undergrowth and managed to get very close, but without actually seeing it so i'm not sure what species it was. might have to go back!

good day in all, mostly down to a good walk, but the birds were good too, and i managed a few year ticks :)

It wasn't a great day for photography unfortunately but i managed a couple of shots, including a couple of views from the pit tip of the wood, and a canada goose getting AGGY with its friend.