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Wednesday 27 January 2016

A Bit of a Round Robin

Cricklade, River Thames
Location

Last Monday, when Dawn and I came back from the Cotswold Water Park, we saw quite a few Lapwing and gulls in the flooded fields just north of the River Thames at Cricklade. Today I thought I'd go back and have a better look. Unfortunately the fields were even more flooded than they were two days ago, and they had moved on. However the Lapwing were still about, as 300+ came over from the south-east heading towards the water park. Also about were 2 Buzzards, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Robin, Redwing, Rook, Carrion Crow and Jackdaw.

The River Thames and flooded fields beyond. The bridge you can see is at this position Here and I was parked Here looking north.

Just a few of the Lapwing passing through.......

....with a few coming into land alongside the A419, unfortunately there was no access to see them close up.

Cleveland Lakes Nature Reserve
Location

As I wasn't that far from the water park I thought I'd have a look across CWP Pit 74 (Cleveland Lakes Nature Reserve). As I arrived at Twitchers Gate Here, the storm clouds were brewing again, but I did get views of 100's of Wigeon, Shoveler, Pintail, Gadwall, Teal and a few Tufted Duck. Other birds around were Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, Mute Swan, Coot, Lapwing, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird and Carrion Crow.

A panoramic view from Twitchers Gate looking almost south across CWP Pit 74 (Cleveland Lakes Nature Reserve)

Across the pit a floating pontoon with several Cormorants. Just behind them are CWP Pits 68a and 68b which had good numbers of Pintail,Teal and Shoveler

On CWP Pit 74 it was mainly Wigeon, with many hundreds mixed in with the Coot.

CWP Pit 9
Location
My last point of call was CWP Pit 9, alas not a Wiltshire pit, but a Gloucestershire one, but an excellent one for Red-crested Pochard. I wasn't disappointed as there must have been upwards of 20 pairs, possibly more.

This an excellent pit for Red-crested Pochard with 20, maybe more pairs.

These two were a bit closer

And here the female has a bit of a stretch.

You are never too far away from a Cormorant.

Birds Recorded today were: Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, Mute Swan, Gadwall, Wigeon, Teal,
Pintail, Shoveler, Red-crested Pochard, Tufted Duck, Buzzard, Pheasant, Coot, Lapwing, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Redwing, Wren, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow and Jackdaw.