Linacre - 4th September 2016

According to meteorologists Autumn begins on 1st September, so today's visit to Linacre was the first autumn visit of 2016. When I arrived at 6.45am it was still, 13 degrees, grey and overcast, but dry. Minutes later the wind had picked up, and a thick drizzle had started, that came down, on and off for the next two hours! Despite this, the birds were good, and numbers were pretty reasonable for the time of year.

Rainbow over the bottom reservoir

The first water bird I saw was, as usual, Mallard. In total, 90 were seen, which was  a very good start, and the highest count of 2016, so far. Mandarin Duck numbers of 39,were the highest since the start of July. 26 Tufted Ducks were also counted (down from a maximum of 44 in July and 40 in August), along with the immature Shag (on its usual perch on the bottom reservoir), 3 Grey Herons, 6 Grey Wagtails (all together on the overflow of the top reservoir), 5 Coots (all adults), 5 Moorhens (3 adults and 2 juveniles), 1 breeding plumaged Little Grebe on the middle reservoir and 4 Great-crested Grebes (1 adult and 1 juvenile on the middle reservoir, and 1 adult and 1 juvenile on the top reservoir).

Other birds of note were a singing Chiffchaff by the top reservoir, a Green Woodpecker heard "yaffling" by the top reservoir, 4 Swallows (3 over the top reservoir and 1 over the fields by the main entrance) and singing Goldcrests.