Swan Lake

Thank goodness I enjoy wildlife and photography, because the fishing yesterday at Ham Pool in the Cotswold Water Park (Pit 18), was dire to say the least. However Tom and I did at least catch a Roach each, though we did wonder if it was the same fish. I'd caught one late in the day and when I emptied the net, Tom caught one/same fish within a minute of me emptying the net! We weren't alone, as other anglers around the complex were struggling to catch. The reason we surmised that it was so poor, was down to all the fish spawning in the shallows.  This is first real prolonged warm spell of weather we've had, and the first opportunity for the fish to spawn. So it wasn't too surprising that we failed.

However the weather was fantastic, I had excellent company and there were plenty of birds around to tick off. I had my first Sedge Warbler of the year and Common Whitethroat. There were Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs singing their hearts out and every now and then a Blackcap would burst into song. There were birds everywhere. A pair of Great Crested Grebes were busy feeding their juveniles with 4 inch silver fish and Coots were squaring up to each other as Coots do.

Coots clashing

Some other birds of note were a pair of Red Crested Pochard that came in to land but opted for the Watermarks lake next door (Pit 16). I'm not surprised that aborted their landing as a pair of Mute Swans were having a hard time of it trying to persuade an interloper that Ham Pool was theirs. Here are a few images of their efforts.......

The Cob in full flow

A skid as he re-lands

Off again

Get out of here

Off again

  

A bit of elevation

Nearly there

And into battle once again

Also on the water were a pair of "Collared" Canada Geese. It looks like they are nesting on the spit which sticks out into the pool. And for a change it was the Mute Swans that were being forced to move on when they got to close. Both birds had red collars, but unfortunately I could only read one of them, which had the letters AU etched in black.

A red "collared" Canada Goose

In total I recorded 39 bird species and 2 butterflies - Brimstone and Peacock.

The birds recorded were: Great Crested Grebe, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Canada Geese, Mallard, Red-crested Pochard, Moorhen, Coot, Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Swallow, Pied Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Sedge Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Redpoll, Goldfinch, Bullfinch, and Reed Bunting