Cassiobury MEGA - 5.4.11

Well a wet and miserable day was certainly brightened up today with a new species for the park. First point of call was the meadow but probably due to the weather there was no sign of the Lesser-Spotted Woodpecker. However shortly afterwards whilst litter picking around the paddling pools I looked up and saw 2 geese flying in from the SE. It was only when they suddenly banked to one side that I saw a large white patch on the wings. They were Egyptian Geese!!!! I watched them as they flew over the trees and the neighbouring houses before being lost to view heading NE towards Watford town centre. Obviously this was the first record for the park and amazingly the last 3 new species have all been geese! 10 minutes later my first 2 Swallows of the year flew SE overhead probably going back to Africa to escape the rain!! The pair of Mandarins were still on the river and justbefore lunch a Willow Warbler was singing in trees next to the council yard. Around 10 Lesser Redpolls were in trees near the Stratford Way entrance. At the end of the day a Muntjac was seen near the nature reserve.