Haden Hill 29/03

After being stuck in the house, I managed to get out at lunch time and have a walk through Haden Hill and and Corngreaves NR. The weather was fabulous and the bird song was amazing, but as always when walking through trees its finding them!

The pools are pretty empty now, all the Gulls have gone, so all that was on the lower pool were Mallards

and a couple of Canada Geese who have decided to nest. Not even a sign of a coot or moorhen!

So on past the pool and into Corngreaves..

First sighting were a few Nuthatches, quite high up but a decent view:

I watched them for a while then spotted one disappearing into one of the trees, so looks like a nest as he/she was constantly going in and out.

So after that carried on along the path by the river, lots of Blue and Great Tits about as well as the usual Magpies and Woodpigeons, however I did come across a pair of Stock Doves so that was a first for the year.

As I went further along a small bird flew across the path and landed in a bush about 10 feet away, so stopped and got the bins on him thinking it was a Blue Tit, but much to my delight it was a Goldcrest. (No photo missed him!) Now believe it or not this is a first, it's one of those birds that has eluded us. However I'm not adding it to the totals as Tina still hasn't seen it.. Them's the rules! (We might get time Saturday to get down there for an hour, but we have a busy weekend planned so who knows)

Just after this I heard a Robin singing his little heart out and he obligingly posed for a while:

Multi Tasking! Singing and Scratching!

So headed on added Blackbird, Song Thrush, Jackdaw, Crow, Rook, nothing to exciting.

As I was coming up through the last part of the NR before back into the park spotted another 3 Nuthatches, then a Jay on the ground, trying to hide from me! But managed a photo:

Of course lots of butterflies about, none of whom would pose apart from this Peacock:

So that was it, walked back via the canal, where I did see the missing Coots and Moorhens (as well as more Mallard & Canada Geese) and one last Robin who wanted his photo taken (He told me!)

TTFN