June at Oak Road Lake

We returned to Oak Field this dull and cloudy morning. The Yellowflags are blooming and the lake is looking fantastic with the reeds having grown quite a bit since our last visit and a carpet of some aquatic plant coming through and giving the surface a beautiful salmon colour. I was hoping the Swans with have cygnets by now, but not yet: The pen was still sitting in the only slightly more concealed nest, barely looked at us before settling to snooze, the cob was alert and right next to the nest. He wasn't even lured away when we fed the ducks some distance away in his full view.

There were three coot families, with five, three and three young each. One of the families approached to feed. The young coots preferred to pick the bread from the adults beak than fetch it themselves. As seven mallards approached to be fed, the coots thought things were getting a bit too much for the young and took them a few meters away by the reeds, but one of the adults kept coming and going bringing the bread to the chicks.

A Coot family portrait

Magpie

Immature Woodpigeon

Sparrowhawk

Reed Warblers kept quiet, but I saw one feeding on the reeds. We also watched a Swallow feeding low over the lake. As we were leaving, a Sparrowhawk flew high, and a Swallow flew right past it.

Bird list

1. Blackbird
2. Carrion Crow
3. Chaffinch
4. Chiffchaff
5. Collared Dove
6. Coot
7. Dunnock
8. Feral Pigeon
9. Goldfinch
10. Greenfinch
11. Herring Gull
12. House Martin
13. House Sparrow
14. Lesser Black-backed Gull
15. Long-tailed Tit
16. Magpie
17. Mallard
18. Moorhen
19. Mute Swan
20. Reed Bunting
21. Reed Warbler
22. Robin
23. Sparrowhawk
24. Starling
25. Swallow
26. Swift
27. Woodpigeon
28. Wren