Lake

Grebe Lake, Whisby Nature Park, Lincoln.

A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Something In The Air

I wandered lonely as a Cloud / That floats on high o'er Vales and Hills, / When all at once I saw a crowd / A host of dancing Daffodils... WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

A few days of mild weather, and some sun, and spring has come to England, in a dance of golden daffodils, a blaze of yellow gorse and forsythia, and snow-white drifts of blackthorn blossom. It's a little too early for the terns and the nightingales, the sand martins and the swallows, but the chiffchaffs, willow warblers and reed warblers are here, all singing furiously. Bumblebees, ladybirds and other insects are out and about, and brimstone and tortoiseshell butterflies too.

At Besthorpe Nature Reserve by the river Trent in Nottinghamshire, the cormorants are busy carrying impossibly long sticks in their beaks with which to repair their nests. And at Whisby Nature Park near Lincoln, the yellow-green flowers of the great sallow, or goat willow, or pussy willow have emerged from their furry grey catkins...

On a short visit to each place this week I counted 28 different species of bird at Besthorpe and 30 at Whisby. Here's one of the Whisby hides overlooking a pool where you can see emperor dragonflies later in the year, and kingfishers if you're lucky...

From one of the hides overlooking Grebe Lake I spotted shelduck, tufted duck, greylag geese, Canada geese, and great-crested grebes doing their synchronized head-dance - which is a courtship ritual. There was much urgency and excitement in the air - not least among hundreds upon hundreds of black-headed gulls, which clamoured round the sky and fought noisily for space on the overcrowded gravel islands in the middle of the lake. Here are two that found a refuge from the cacophonous melee...

Bird Watching At Whisby

This afternoon I took advantage of the mild, sunny, early spring weather and stole an hour or two in Whisby Nature Park just south of Lincoln. The chiffchaffs had now arrived, whipping the air with their familiar, faintly monotonous, repetitive 2 to 3 note song. A lot of bird books illustrate chiffchaffs as dowdy, yellow-brown birds. But the reality is far different, especially in today's clear, slanting sunlight. Through my binoculars they looked magnificently beautiful in their lustrous yellow-green plumage when I picked them out in the birch trees' topmost branches. They faced one way, then turned 180 degrees to face the other, and sang for all they were worth in order to stake out their territory.

The yellow flowers of lesser celandines and their heart-shaped leaves covered the grassy bank of the drainage channel by the path circling Grebe Lake. The little islands in the lake were noisy with black-headed gulls which screamed and squabbled. A couple of early butterflies took off in jerky flight but it was impossible to identify them. Blackthorn was blossoming along the eastern edge of the lake. Out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed briefly one of the first swallows or martins to arrive here from Africa. It vanished before I could take a proper look at it. Bird identification can be so frustrating..!

Later I was lucky to see a sparrowhawk coasting over Willow Lake - a few flaps and a glide, a few flaps and a glide. It was a male, its belly barred bright orange. These birds (indeed, birds of prey generally) are increasing in numbers all over the UK - which is great news. Also I just missed seeing what I think must have been a water vole as it dunked into the reedy, still margins of the lake - the ripples spread out in concentric circles, but it didn't reappear. I scanned in vain for a kingfisher on the Dragonfly Lakes. But I did see 5 pairs of gadwall very close-up. In the sunlight these are the most striking and delicately marked of ducks. I spent ages admiring them.

Though I'm not normally one for lists and statistics, I thought it might be fun to count and list the number of bird species I noted today. The total was 35. Not bad when you consider that most of the wintering ducks and geese have now left, and it's still too early for most of the spring visitors. Also, since Whisby is predominantly reed and rush fringed lake and pond, with willow, alder and relatively new birch woods (interspersed with the odd remanant of older oak forest), the traditional bird species of more mature woodland - jay, woodpecker, nuthatch, treecreeper for example - are harder to find. And it's not really the right environment for waders either.

Anyway, here's the list:

Wren, Robin, Blackbird, Magpie, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Dunnock, Carrion Crow, Rook, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Green Plover, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler Duck, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Teal, Goldeneye, Cormorant, Chiffchaff, Black-headed Gull.

I heard a pheasant but didn't see it so haven't included it, nor have I included the brief swallow/martin sighting.

Birch Trees At Whisby

After a very windy night, today I took a walk in Whisby Nature Park. It's quite near here, just south of Lincoln. I think it was formed out of old sand and gravel workings. We used to go there quite often at weekends when the children were young and the dog was alive. The wind had died down a lot but it was still blustery. A low sun emerged out of cloud from time to time, transmuting the dull pewter of the ponds and lakes into shining silver.

A stoat streaked across the path near Grebe Lake, the black tip of its tail clearly visible. A grey squirrel shot up a tree. I only caught a glimpse, as grey squirrels always seem to climb up the other side of the trunk, the side hidden away from any human observers. On the lake itself the usual coots and moorhens and tufted duck bobbed about. And the odd pochard. And a pair of goldeneye, 2 pairs of shoveler and 3 pairs of gadwall. Overhead screamed black-headed gulls, their heads now darkening into chocolate-brown breeding plumage.

It was a little too early for the chiffchaffs and willow warblers, those first spring migrants, and much too early for the nightingales, for which the Park is well known. This is the only place I've ever seen nightingales. You can get very close. They're beautiful close up, not boring brown birds at all. And their song really does live up to all those romantic hyperboles.

Some small Shetland cattle (a rare breed) were lying down very still and quietly on the Grazing Marsh. Just beyond, the pitted Sandhills were awaiting the eventual return of their sand martin colony. On Willow Lake I saw a single little grebe, several great crested grebes, a few more gadwall - and a raft of perhaps 20 shoveler duck feeding in the middle of the lake. And gathered on one rough patch by the lakeside, clumps of purple-stemmed colt's-foot were bursting through. The yellow eyes of these flowers are fringed with long yellow lashes.