A gloomy morning at Lake Farm

I had a morning stroll around Lake Farm today. I rarely go there now, since the new school has been built the thrill of visiting the site has left me.

 

There are only two good things I have to say about the school, it has nice large living green roofs (or rooves, if you spell it the old fashioned way) and young oak trees are starting to be planted around the perimeter. The school has even stolen Lake Farms statue of the symbolic Skylark for it's own.

 

 My initial reason for visiting was to hopefully spot Stonechats. Sue had seen two there recently, and I was hoping that might be a sign that they will over winter on site again. For the first time in my memory, they failed to over winter last year, and I do blame that on the new school being built. And again today, there was not one sign of any Stonechats. Maybe next winter, when the birds are more used to the new noises from the school, they may over winter again. Also lacking today were any Reed Buntings. Lake Farm used to host a large population of these over winter (one memorable day in Feb 2012 I counted 22 of them). Today, not one. And lastly, noticeable by their absence, were the House Sparrows. From the sounds I could hear, it seems they have defected over to the houses in Botwell Common Road.

 

So what did I find this morning ? A distant skein of geese were going over.....but too distant to make out what they were.....

 

 

Accidentally I kept flushing a Green Woodpecker.....

 

It was very overcast and gloomy today, so none of my photos are going to win any prizes. And the autumn colours that I would expect just haven't happened this year. So artistic licence let me make my own...

 

Before.........

 

and after.....

 

 

There are lots of pockets of shrubs with berries at the moment, but not many winter Thrushes around to feed on them. The Hawthorns haws are almost black in colour now, instead of the lovely red that they were a few weeks ago.....

 

 

but the wild rose hips are looking beautiful.....

 

 

and the mahonia that grows along the boundary fence always looks good at this time of year....

 

 

In the Navnat field, the usual gulls were gathering. Three different varieties today.....

 

Herring gull....

 

 

Common gull....

 

and Black-headed gull......

 

By the school, a large hole has appeared and is flooded with water. I'm not sure if this is meant to be a new pond or whether its going to be built over, but it was attracting several batheing Magpies, Wood Pigeons and a little Pied Wagtail.....

 

 

Birds seen but not photographed included three Goldcrests in the copse by the canal, a handful of Linnets, a large mixed flock of Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, several Blackbirds and a wonderful sighting of a female Sparrowhawk emerging from the canal copse, flying low over a grassy path and missing its intended Linnet target by just a fraction of a second, and which all happened way too fast for me to even remember I had a camera in my hand.

 

So not a bad morning, just a shame it was so gloomy....