What a day started out at 5.10am on a dark damp morning arrived at reserve around 8.00am the reserve is just a five minute walk from Attenborough Rail Station.
On entry along the bridleway you get a great taste of what’s to come straight away with pools either side of the main path, at present I should say that the water levels are a little high (haven’t got an idea why though) but on a high note it brings the ducks and swans in a lot closer.
I will put a ling up at the bottom so people who are interested can see a map of the reserve take my word for it this is a place everyone should visit at least once.
Only managed to do a small quota of the reserve but really do intend to visit again in May and maybe again in September yes it’s that good and the banter is great as well everyone around was really friendly.
To get the best out of the birding it’s best to get there early as after around 10am there were a lot of walkers, Dog walkers & bikers around but this still didn’t stop me having a great day.
My highlight of the day was a little different to normal a Bar Headed x Ross’s Goose Hybrid it was by the nature centre information area it was clearly with another Ross’s goose hybrid and was nearly twice the size, also on the reserve was a Egyptian goose and a smaller Egyptian goose possible Hybrid as the white patch on the larger goose was more prominent than on the smaller bird or could they have been a Pair.
The main hide on the Clifton pool is in my opinion one of the best hides I have seen up till now you can see over both pools as the windows are on all sides except for where the doorway is unfortunately today the sun was blazing straight into to the windows overlooking the Clifton pool so after around half an hour I moved to the Kingfisher Hide this again looks over the Clifton Pool and was more accommodating as the sun was out of the way and gave me a chance to see what was around (list at end of review).
Unfortunately no lifers today but five more yearly ticks, loved my views of the following species Goosander, Water rail, Egyptian goose, Bar-headed hybrid & I feel one of the most underrated of our ducks the Tufted Duck (not too many photographs of these beautiful little ducks seem to make it onto the internet these days).
A bit of construction going on around the Nature Information Centre looks like they could be trying to put in new islands to the right of the centre but with the way the water was today very rough and choppy I don’t think much will be done for a while yet.
Love the way they have constructed many watching/viewing areas along all the pools you seem to be able to watch for birds everywhere, the one let down (which had nothing to do with the reserve’s work was that you couldn’t walk the path through the coppiced area to the Attenborough Village as the path was shall we say a little under water as a first timer I wasn’t going to risk it as I didn’t know where the path actually was under the water.
OVERALL VIEW –
I would recommend this great reserve to everyone and you have to visit it at least once (if by public transport trains from Nottingham and Birmingham) I will be returning here a little later in the year and it has the potential to have some great species around well done to everyone on the reserve.
SPECIES SEEN TODAY –
Bar-headed hybrid goose, Black headed gull, Blackbird, Blue tit, Bullfinch, Canada goose, Carrion crow, Cetti’s warbler, Chaffinch, Common snipe, Coot, Cormorant, Dunnock, Egyptian goose, Fieldfare, Gadwall, Goldeneye, Goosander, Great crested grebe, Great tit, Greenfinch, Greylag goose, Jackdaw, Kingfisher, Lapwing, Lesser black backed gull, Long tailed tit, Magpie, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute swan, Pochard, Raven, Redwing, Reed bunting, Robin, Starling, Tufted duck, Water rail, Wigeon, Wood pigeon & Wren
Images -
1 - Bar-headed goose x Ross's/Snow goose hybrid
2 - The very small Egyptian goose (Hybrid I think as it was as small as the tufted duck's close by) any idea's would be grateful if someone can help?
3 - Female Goosander
4 - Angry looking Tuftie
5 - Moorhen in full sun (now love these guys look at the colours on them)