Netherfield lagoons, 31st July

On saturday i decided the best hangover cure was to get on my bike and go to netherfield lagoons, i didn't know when i left that it was an 18-mile round trip! It was worth it though as i passed through colwick park on the way so saw plenty of wildlife.

I stopped at the marina at colwick for a breather and was rewarded with the sight of a Kingfisher flying past only a few metres away. There was also a pair of Great Crested Grebes with one juvenile, i hoped to get a picture of the little one but it wouldn't come out far enough so i just made do with the adults!

At the sluice there were quite a lot of Sand Martins and a few Swallows that i watched for a while. On the main lake near the bund were plenty of gulls and i also got a few shots of a Moorhen feeding her young.

I moved on to Netherfield Lagoons, which is a good site which throws up a few county rarities quite often and recently there has been an influx of passage migrants which i'd hoped to see including redshanks and greenshanks. Unfortunately my telescope isn't quite good enough to get clear views of the main area of interest at the lagoons as it is quite far from the path, as once you zoom past 20x magnification things get a bit blurry - i guess you get what you pay for!!! The sun glistening off the water didn't really help either. I did get views of lots of Lapwing, a good number of Gulls, mainly black-headed but a few Lesser blackbacks too, and there was also a Pochard sitting amongst the mallards too. There may have been something else in there of interest but i couldnt see it!

Other birds of note were a Willow Warbler which was singing near the path, a Green Woodpecker and a few Blackcaps. The highlight of the day however was watching hundreds of Swallows and House Martins feeding over the trent near the railway bridge. All of a sudden they flocked together and started screeching, the cause being a Hobby coming in to hunt, i watched it for a while but it kept disappeearing from view, and eventually it must have flown off. Very good to see though! A flock of Canada Geese also flew through.

There was also a lot of Teasel in flower, which had attracted a lot of 6-spot Burnet moths, a few Common Blue butterflies, and loads of Bees, including this very large one, not sure what it is but it was over an inch long!