Trip reports

Wraysbury day trip.

Sunday, 20 January 2008

Wraysbury always offers exciting birds at this time of the year, but the recent heavy rain meant that the conditions under foot were very wet and slippery, which caught out a number of our party. The first bird of the day was a beautiful golden eye. In fact there were numerous golden eye, with several males displayed with typical head jerking movements. Cormorant, coot, tufted duck, mallard, mute swan and great crested grebe were also on the lake. It was noticeable that there were less small birds than normal. We managed to find a few fieldfare, long tailed tits and a robin, but not much else on the land. We found our only smew of the day in the secluded fishing lake, where we witnessed the catch of a reasonably large fish. Returning via a circular root there were more water birds. wigeon, grey heron, gadwall, shoveler, pochard and a group of goosander kept us glued to our optics. A kestrel gave a brief sighting and a common gull sat on a buoy. Our final surprise was a chiffchaff, wintering in the scrub land near the motorway.