Coate Water

With the weather not looking too bad, I paid Coate Water a visit. I only had an hour so decided to park up close to the cafe and then walk down to the marina and back. By the time I'd got to the marina there was a steady downpour of icy rain. Fortunately it didn't last long and instead there was an icy blast of cold air driving in from the north.

There were plenty of ducks on the water, mainly Mallard, but a bit further out there were Tufted Duck, a few Pochard, of which one drake came in quite close and even further out there were 9 Goosander and yet again a pair of these was also close into the bank.  A Cormorant was just beyond the diving board and on the board was a solitary adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, which was later joined by a first winter.

Canada Geese in flight

 

Pochard (drake)

 About 9:45 am one of the regular walkers came up onto the dam and spread out large handfuls of grain to the birds. First the feral pigeons came down, then a few Mallard and then a Carrion Crow.  I'm not sure what he threw into the water, but whatever it was, it had every bird in a frenzy, there were Black-headed Gulls, Canada Geese, Swans, Coots and Moorhens all battling away for a morsel. One or two of the Black-headed Gulls were just starting to turn into their Summer plumage.

Black-headed Gull almost in Summer plumage

Black-headed Gull in winter plumage

Black-headed Gull almost in Summer plumage

A bit further down from the Diving Board on the right of the path there was a Grey Heron stalking in the margins and all about the grass banks Moorhen were scurrying around.

Grey Heron