Colwick park, May 27th

This was my last trip of may, and the first since finishing university. I didn't have very long as i left quite late and had to be back by 4 for work, but still had a good day.

Colwick is always a good place to go birding, as it has a good mix of woodland and lakes which encourage a reasonably good diversity of birds, but it also has some good areas with wildflowers and shrubs which attract a range of invertebrate species too. It can be very busy, but if you catch it on a quiet day, lots can be seen.

At the bridge near the entrance was the usual collection of common wildfowl, mostly mallards, but with a few moorhens and coots thrown in too. There were some juvenile coots on the edge of the water which i managed to get a couple of pictures, and a couple of male mallards presented a photo oppurtunity too.

At the carpark there is always a large number of waterfowl, usually Canada and Greylag Geese, and today there were plenty about, with a lot of Goslings too. A Mandarin duck and a Muscovy have been present here for a few months too.

There were lots of Swifts flying over the lake today too, there must have been nearly 100 of them, and i tried in vain to get a good photo of them flying, as they were very fast and it was only really possible to get them in the distance, i'll give it another go soon though, its a nice challenge!

Walking through to the other side of the lake, i went onto the peninsula with an area of scrubby trees and bramble, where it was alive with the sound of birds. Some elusive Blackcaps were singing loudly but i couldn't locate them, and there were also several Chiffchaffs about. Most abundant however were Long Tailed Tits, and there were many juveniles, flitting about catching insects. They remained in the branches though so it was difficult to get a good shot.

This Canada Goose family came to the bank to feed too.

At the end of the peninsula i scanned the lake for hirundines and found many birds catching insects over the water, there were mostly Sand Martins, but there were also small numbers of Swallow and my first House Martins of the year too! There were also several Common Terns feeding in the distance too.

I had a good look around for invertebrates in the hedges and ditches too and was rewarded by a few species, some of which provided good photo oppurtunities. Here's a few.

This is a Soldier Beetle species

Female banded demoiselle

Small tortoiseshell caterpillars

Ladybird sp.

Near the marina on the trent, there were a few more birds, a few Reed Buntings were scared off as i walked past, as they were feeding on the riverbank. A few Pied Wagtails and Starlings were feeding on the grassy banks. A look at the lock resulted in a few Cormorants, more Blackcaps and a Song Thrush, and as i walked back to the entrance, there were several House Sparrows in the hedgerows.

35 species of bird seen, 1 year tick :)