Stormy Waters

I'm not very good at this. Yesterday I arrived at Slimbridge in the rain and today I did exactly the same at Coate Water. To make matters worse as I left Coate, the sun came out!

So braving the elements I walked anti-clockwise around Coate and stopped off just beyond the boat yard. But before I got there I watched a Great Crested Grebe catch and eat what looked like a fair sized Perch, certainly for a grebe. After a couple of "jiggles" with its beak, it was gone.

This Great Crested Grebe is just taking on its summer plumage.

To get to that stage it needs food and this Perch.....

...............was soon dispatched.

An adult Great Crested Grebe in its breeding colours.

Further along in the hedgerow by the boat yard, there was a small party of Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits and a solitary Goldcrest that seemed quite oblivious that I was just a metre away from them. They just carried on regardless, feeding on small invertebrates in the Hawthorns.

I managed a couple of shots, but must apologies for the poor image quality. The Canon PowerShot SX50 HS bridge camera I use is really excellent in good lighting conditions, however it does have its limitations when the skies turn grey. Unfortunately even taking it out of Auto and uprating the ISO to above 800 still lends to inferior picture quality, so not very helpful when you're trying to maintain a fast shutter speed.

Long-tailed Tit

A grab shot of a Goldcrest as it foraged alongside the tit flock.

By the time I got to the bank behind the boat yard it was blowing a hoolie. The wind had whipped up the water and there were huge waves that wouldn't have looked out of place on the coast. Looking across the choppy waters there was a small flock of around 10 Herring Gulls, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 1 Common Gull and several Black-headed Gulls. In amongst them were a few Cormorants and a lot more Great Crested Grebes.

A Cormorant, a Lesser Black-backed Gull in flight and 5 or so Herring Gull bobbing about on the water.

One of the 10 Herring Gulls seemingly enjoying the turbulent conditions.

This one looks to be a 3rd winter.....

And another Herring Gull, a 1st winter.

Just to illustrate how dark it was, this Mute Swan looks quite serene against the dark waters.

As I left the waters edge and headed back to the car park, I heard a Kingfisher calling and then a few seconds later it flew across the Crazy Golf Course, over the path right in front of me and around the island. Between the island and the path all the ducks, geese and coots were taking shelter from the storm! But of course you know the rest, as I drove away the sun came out.................

Birds Recorded: Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, 100+ Canada Goose, Mallard, Tufted Duck, 2 male Goosander, Moorhen, Coot, Black-headed Gull, 10 Herring Gull, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 1 Common Gull, Wood Pigeon, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, 1 Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow and Jackdaw.