Middleton Lakes RSPB 8th July

Taken me a while to do this post as I haven't been on top form shall we say!

Also no pics as I had let the battery run flat in my camera so not a good start...
We decided to take a trip to Middleton as we hadn't been since January. When we arrived the first thing to see were the host of volunteers trying to repair the path up from the car park through the wood after the heavy rain, they did warn us we might not be able to get far, but we had our boots on so persevered!

The main path wasn't to bad, but the one through the woods looked terrible so we carried straight on and chose to use the little track along the canal, when we looked down on the path after the woods that leads to the c anal bridge it must have been under a couple of feet of water so a good choice to go around, we clambered up onto the bridge and over into the reserve.

The water level of the Lake was really high, nothing there for waders, the usual scrapes and island edges were completely gone, but the paths looked OK, so we wandered around to the screen and had a coffee, watched 2 GC Grebes with 4 chicks, at one time these were all on one of the parents backs, which was quite an achievement as they weren't that little anymore!

Plenty of Sedge Warblers and Reed Buntings about, a Gadwall turned up, and there were a few Common Terns fishing. Otherwise just BH Gulls, Coots, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan and surprisingly few Mallards.

We decided to try the path along the river dodging the really soggy bits, but eventually got to a point where the standing water was too deep for our boots and we turned back, just adding a Kestrel to the sightings for the day.

So we stopped by the screen for another coffee and then the heavens opened, so brolly up water proofs on and we stuck it out until it passed and the sun came out for a final glorious 45 minutes or so, it actually got hot, now we were over dressed! We carried on to see how far we could go walking around the Wetland walk in the other direction, the answer was not far! Again the standing water was just to deep!

So back to a bench and a last coffee before heading back. The only thing to add were flocks of Lapwings crossing at intervals heading towards Kingsbury.

Let's just hope this rain eases up and the water levels can get back to normal.

We dis see lots of butterflies, dragon flies, and damselflies, that gave great displays and in some cases in large numbers, but sorry couldn't tell what they were.