Wet Dog Birding

As the dog was going to get wet and muddy wherever I took him for afternoon walk I decided I might as well get some birding in at the same time. So I decided on a walk around the main lake at Coate Water. When I arrived it wasn’t actually raining but it wasn’t long before it started again, along with the wind this made checking the Lake fairly challenging. Along with good numbers of Tufted Duck were a handful of Pochard, a dozen or so Gadwall, twenty plus Great Crested Grebe and twenty-six Swans. There were two groups of Goosander, ten by the Causeway and another dozen down by the Dam. Only six of them were males. A couple of visiting birders ( they had stopped in while passing to look for the Great White Egret) saw a flock of thirty to forty Siskins by the first hide. Birds seen in the trees were Great Spotted Woodpecker, Chaffinch, Robin, Great and Blue Tit and lots of Blackbirds. To clean the mud off of the dog before letting him back in the car I wandered onto the golf course where I chucked him in the pond. Despite the fact the rain was hammering down there was a flock of over two hundred Redwings feeding on the Fairways. Also a Mistle Thrush was sat up in one of the trees here.

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