Roding Valley Lake and Nature Reserve

Had a nice 2-3 hour stroll round Roding Valley Lake and Nature Reserve with dad this afternoon.

The lake was the starting point and a quick scan produced Wigeon, Pochard, Shoveler, Tufted Duck Gadwall and Mallard.

1st Winter Common Gull

Both Great Crested and Little Grebes were also present along with Mute Swans, Cormorant and Canada Geese.

A walk round the lake added a Great-Spotted Woodpecker busily stripping bark from tree branches. A single Siskin was seen briefly when it flew in to a nearby tree.

Water levels on the lake and along the length of the River Roding were much higher than usual with all the recent rainfall.

Plenty of Jays were seen and a group of Common and Black-headed Gulls were making good use of the flooded fields either for drinking or bathing.

Ring-necked Parakeets were heard but not seen on this occasion. However two Redwings were found feeding at the bottom of the hedge line.

We crossed the river taking the Charlie Moule's Bridge into the Roding Valley Meadows.

Two Goldcrests were heard and quickly located amongst the ivy, a Kestrel flew across and landed briefly in a nearby tree but was quickly moved on by a Carrion Crow.

The walk back was pretty quiet on the whole, but we added a few of the commoner species to the list. With Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tits, Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Chaffinch.

Around forty species seen, which was not bad at all.