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Pugneys

A late afternoon visit to Pugneys Country Park, first impressions on arriving was that it was very quiet. The first birds seen around the Jetty/Cafe area were Black headed Gull, Mallard, Canada Goose, and Great Crested Grebe being the most notable, it was quiet.

I walked around to the nature reserve hide, it was now open or I thought until I entered the hide, there was a lot of fire damage to the hide, I didn’t stop long, it was apparent that I shouldn’t be in there, I couldn’t get my head around, WHY, why do this, why ruin other peoples pleasures? and put their lives in danger in doing so

After the upset, I carried on my walk thru the small wood out towards the main lake hide, Blackbirds were about along with Blue Tit, Crow, Magpie, Wren, and in the nearby reeds were Reed Warblers, chattering away.

Back on the main path a flock of House Martins were hawking over the tops of the trees, the main lake hide had now been fixed, fire damage to the floor, but there wasn’t a lot to see from here, a few Sand Martins were present, along with Herring Gulls, Cormorants, and Tufted Duck.

Moving from the hide to the seat opposite, this overlooks the Nature Reserve Lake, from here I could see the Tern Raft, and here I saw three Common Terns, these were nicely flying around and landing back on the raft occasionally giving me good views of these birds, also seen from here were Teal.

Walking down to the beach a Male Reed Bunting was seen, giving its presence away by its calling, finally around at the kids playground was a good size flock of Swifts hawking low over the trees.

Birds Seen: Black headed Gull, Blue Tit, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chiffchaff, Common Tern, Coot, Cormorant, Dunnock, Great Crested Grebe, Great Tit, Herring Gull, House Martin, Kestrel, Lesser Black backed Gull, Magpie, Mallard, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler, Sand Martin, Swallow, Swift, Teal, Tufted Duck, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren (31)

Robin in Full Song

Pugneys CP

A Long tailed Duck was the draw down to Pugneys CP after the work shift, it was last seen on the main lake down near the beach area the previous day, so I was in high hopes.

After getting my gear together I bumped into a couple, birders by the looks, coming in my direction, I asked if they had seen the Long tailed Duck, but alas they hadn’t in the time they had been there, not to be deterred I set off in the direction of the beach. On the journey I saw Mute Swan, Wigeon, Black headed Gull, Common Gull, Mallards, Pied Wagtail, Canada Geese, Coots, Tufted Duck, and Lapwing.

Arriving at the beach area I scanned thro the assembled Black headed Gulls and soon enough I found the Long tailed Duck, a relatively small bird in appearance, this one looked like a winter plumage female, it was very busy diving and preening whilst I was watching it. I hung around this area for a while taking photos and video, mainly of the Black headed Gulls that were here.

After here I moved off towards the main lake hide, hoping for a Water Rail, which wasn’t to be today, but it was nice to find and watch a couple of Goldeneye from here. As I came back the same way away from the hide there were a few Blackbirds near the hedgerow. I made one last visit to the beach I watched the Long tailed Duck for a little while longer, then I hit the cafe for coffee and cake.

After the coffee and cake, I stuck around the car park area a little while longer taking photos of Pied Wagtails before setting off home.

A short video of the birds from my visit press HERE

Bird List : Blackbird, Black headed Gull, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Goldeneye, Great Crested Grebe, Great Tit, Herring Gull, Lapwing, Lesser Black backed Gull, Long tailed Duck, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Pochard, Robin, Starling, |Stock Dove, Tufted Duck, Wigeon

Pugneys

A brief visit out to Pugneys CP, just for a chill out time, take the camera out see what I could capture. Gates open at 9am, and it’s a pay and display car park, I’d forget, coins were at home,  luckily I found £2 in the car,  phew.

Out on the main lake,  Great Crested Grebes, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Mallard, plenty of Coot and Black headed Gull with a few Herring and Common Gulls.

Near the jetty were Mallards, Lapwing, Lesser Black backed Gull and a few Pied Wagtails, a bunch of Sand and House Martins, there were Mute Swans and Canada Geese chilling on the main lake.

I grapped the camera and spent sometime taking photos of the Wagtails, spending about an hour, over 500 pics, here’s a few of my favourite ones.

Pied Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Pied Wagtail