College Lake + Wilstone Reservoir - 10.3.16

Black Swan

 

On the way up to the patch a Little Egret was seen in fields in Boxmoor and once up at College Lake a quick scan over the water produced a male Shelduck, female Goldeneye and a pair of Black Swan!

 

Grey Partridge (honestly!)

 

With an hour or so to kill before concentrating on the gull roost I had a wander round to the jetty hoping that the Egyptian Geese were mingling in with the Canada and Greylags but no joy. Last year I'd narrowly missed 2 Grey Partridge in fields north of Startops Reservoir and after talking with a couple of the local birders they suggested they are probably in the surrounding fields its just a case of finding them. So after scanning the geese I had a scan of the fields behind the jetty and lo and behold 2 fields away was a Grey Partridge sitting upright showing off his dark belly! A second bird then popped up next to it but then both crouched down and vanished. Luckily they kept popping up and so I managed to get a couple of ropey photos for posterity! I walked back towards the car park and found 2 Oystercatchers feeding on the grass bank. I went to get a photo of them but found that I'd drained my phone battery trying to photograph the partridges! The gull roost failed to produce a Mediterranean Gull for the year list.