William Lewis
Wishing birdwatching paid the bills.
Enjoyable morning had up at paxton pits yesterday (29th Jan). A decently sized reserve with toilets and a cafe (check if its open). This being my first visit I probably missed a couple of tricks not knowing the areas where an extra 5 minutes might have yielded more species.
The reserve is made up of former gravel pits and looks to be well managed with plenty of nest boxes up, well marked trails and enough hides and view points to see what's about without disturbing it. The main route around is probably 2/3 miles.
Most of the interest in our visit was on the water with one of the best selections of ducks I've seen for a while. There were plenty of wigeon and gadwall about along with mallards, shoveler (which landed in decent numbers having been absent all morning), tufted duck, a pair of goldeneye which I don't see too often as well as good number of goosander with probably around 10 on the water at once. There were also a couple of Egyptian geese, the usual greylag, many mute swans as well as a couple or 3 herons and a great white egret. Not too much in the way of passerines around, but it was quite a blustery day, also an absence of winter thrushes which seem to have moved through this area quite quickly this winter, i've hardly seen any since november/early December. Raptors consisted of the usual suspects, buzzard, kestrel and sparrow hawk.
All in quite a pleasant reserve with plenty more habitat to explore further up and down the river if time permits.
Will
The reserve is made up of former gravel pits and looks to be well managed with plenty of nest boxes up, well marked trails and enough hides and view points to see what's about without disturbing it. The main route around is probably 2/3 miles.
Most of the interest in our visit was on the water with one of the best selections of ducks I've seen for a while. There were plenty of wigeon and gadwall about along with mallards, shoveler (which landed in decent numbers having been absent all morning), tufted duck, a pair of goldeneye which I don't see too often as well as good number of goosander with probably around 10 on the water at once. There were also a couple of Egyptian geese, the usual greylag, many mute swans as well as a couple or 3 herons and a great white egret. Not too much in the way of passerines around, but it was quite a blustery day, also an absence of winter thrushes which seem to have moved through this area quite quickly this winter, i've hardly seen any since november/early December. Raptors consisted of the usual suspects, buzzard, kestrel and sparrow hawk.
All in quite a pleasant reserve with plenty more habitat to explore further up and down the river if time permits.
Will
