Haden Hill Park & Corngreaves NR

We took advantage of a bit of late afternoon sunshine yesterday and went for a quick walk up through Corngreaves NR up to the Park, around the Lower Pool and then back down through the NR.

The walk up to the park was very quiet, we hardly saw anyone which was unusual, we guess the muddy paths had put off the dog walkers. So we might have expected lots of bird activity, but we only saw Woodpigeon, Blackbird and Robin, so we thought another walk without seeing much.

We paused briefly at the pool, where there were only Mallard, Black-headed Gull and Coot. A few Blue and Great Tits were flitting around the trees and a solitary Chaffinch was hanging out on a branch. So disappointed we walk back through the reserve, along the river. Then as we approached the first steps that dropped back down to towards the river, we had a flurry of activity.

First a large group of Long-tailed Tits turned up with Blue Tit and Great Tit in tow, we watched them for a little while, whereupon a Treecreeper was spotted;

The light was now fading so the shots very grainy. The Treecreeper flew off, but was replaced by a Nuthatch;

We were very happy with the turn of events, which was then capped by a Goldcrest up high in the trees;

It was excellent 15 minutes of birding and well worth braving the mud!