Wren Wildlife walk

 

The February Wren wildlife walk was led by James Heal and started at Jubilee Lake. Even though the weather was windy and rather wet 20 plucky people turned up to hear about the abundance of birds on dispaly. Two Pochard, two Gadwall and four Shoveller mixed the more common Mallard and Tufted Duck and the abundant Mute Swans and Canada Geese. These unnatural numbers of water birds are only sustained by the industrial level of feeding from local shops. Many of the Black-headed Gulls were starting to molt into summer plumage with their dark brown caps and twenty or so Common Gulls of various ages also loafed at the Eastern end of the Lake. A couple of larger Lesser Black-Backed Gulls flew in and one adult Herring Gull was on the fairground. Walking over Centre Road we were greeted by a singing Skylark and four Meadow Pipits flew passed giving their distinctive “isst” calls. With the clouds lifting two Stonechat appeared briefly in the brooms and eventually one posed well for all to see despite the breeze. We managed a total of 38 species, although some were fly-overs and not seen by all.