I visited as usual in the evening and managed to see presumably the same Little Egret, together with Mike Pollard. It flew a couple of circuits of the reservoir before rather surprisingly going to roost in the pines at the northern end! There was also the odd group of both House Martins and Swallows heading through without stopping. Canada Geese numbers were up with 73 present, while the single Tufted Duck remained and the first Great Crested Grebe for a while was also about.
Today (09/09), I dragged myself up for a pre-work visit. It was pretty chilly and gloomy and seemingly good for something new to arrive. Overall, it was fairly quiet although the scrub and trees alongside the river were pretty productive with 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Garden Warbler feeding on blackberries, a young Blackcap, 1 Willow Warbler and a couple of Chiffchaff. There were also a couple more Chiffchaff on the edge of the wood, one in song. A young Common Gull was with several Black Headed and Lesser Black Backed Gulls.
I paid a brief visit down to the Borrow Pit this evening. The 3 Whinchat remained, while a single Wigeon was present together with 2 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Grebe, a Coot, 3 Mute Swan and 2 Swallows passed through. The reservoir held 4 Tufted Duck plus the continued presence of a lovely, very vocal family party of Goldfinches that have been along the western edge of the reservoir for at least a week.
Colin Wilkinson also visited at dusk and saw 4 Yellow Wagtails heading south. He also had a look for some bats along by the river and the area east of the reservoir. With the aid of his basic detector, he was fairly sure he picked up 10-20 Common Pipistrelles, 2-3 Serotine and 1 Brown Long-Eared Bat.
The area may seem fairly normal to most but, with a bit of effort some really interesting wildlife can be found at Grimsbury!
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