Still walking the George

I'm still strolling the four mile circuit of the reservoir as often as I can in search of something interesting and watching the movement of birds on and around it. The twitch to Wales on Friday was a nice distraction and Saturday / Sunday saw me busy with the kids school fate and baby sitting duties so by the time I got over the George on Monday I'd had three days off.

I got a good soaking walking around on Monday but found my first ever Nuthatch for the site so the soaking was worth it. My second Pochard of the summer was present with a drake on north basin and a Common Sandpiper on the causeway was a welcome June tick too in a total of 55 species for the day count. 

The bread put out for the horses attracts a good few birds too

Pochard

Yesterday I visited a little later in the day, traffic problems on the M25 split over into surrounding roads making it an interesting couple of miles down to the reservoir but my local knowledge allowed me to navigate around the back roads to a degree. On arrival I found a Common Sandpiper on south basin and at the causeway a Little ringed Plover before finding a new bird not only for June but for the year in the form of a Lapwing on the north side of the causeway and I think this is the first I've ever had on the deck here too. For the day I had a species count of 51 and found it a little harder as many of the birds had gone quiet. 

Crow

Crow

Tufted Duck

Lapwing

Lapwing

Little ringed Plover

Common Sandpiper and LRP

Little Grebe

Cormorants

Cormorant

Cormorant

Common Sandpiper

Tufted Duck

My year list for the reservoir is now 115 with the recent additions of Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch and now Lapwing whilst the site has seen a total of 131 species so I've missed 16 despite my best effort. I struggled to hear Treecreeper in the spring where as younger ears picked them up. I missed Whinchat although I think we've only had the one bird so far this year. Henry had two Snipe and a Spotted Redshank in the mist on a day I didn't make it over but these birds were gone within minutes of his finding them. Other birds seen this year that I've missed include Coal Tit, Rook, Yellowhammer Pintail, Brambling, Med Gull, Sandwich Tern, Redstart, Brent Geese, Green Sandpiper, Stonechat and Redpoll.

My life list for the George stands at 139 with a couple of historical records still to be submitted when/if  I can pin down the dates with some accuracy.

I do love a list 

onwards and upwards!