Big Waters - Saturday

07.25 and off to Big Waters via Macydees for a Latte.  On arrival not a soul around, no cars in the car park and very little sounds on the walk to the hide apart from a Chiff Chaff it its normal place by the gate.  Not even John B's car was there so all alone I opened the hide windows thinking nobody had disturbed anything so what would be out there.  Well there was plenty of stuff but it was all in the distance from the Island down to the Public End.  Alan J was the only other person to come later on (when the rain had stopped) and during the period we saw 13 Adult Mute Swans and the 9 Sygnets, who were doing their first warm ups with their wings going full blast for 5-10m.  The Adults were still doing their Im the King of the Castle thing but I think it is just showing off as nothing was chased off although some did fly off but returned after a couple of circuits of the lake.  Also a couple of Pochard just appeared, no sign of them flying in so dont know how long they had been there.  An adult Little Grebe and a juvenile were spotted but once again they never came together.  A Great Crested Grebe is still by itself and has been for nearly 2 weeks now with no sign of the one it was with for a week.  62 Lapwings had a spin around but the water still hasnt receded enough for them to drop in.  No sign of the 700 Gulls that were around last week with only a couple of Lesser Black Backed and a handful of Black Headed Gulls around.  An juvenile unringed Great Spotted Woodpecker was in the Feeding Station along with a Ringed one so we know that there is at least 3 around.  A Sparrowhawk or possibly several made at least 6 runs through the Feeding Station and collected a Blue Tit on the first foray, lots of bad pics taken but one decent(ish) one when it stopped for 2 Seconds on a stump (the bit that I took was decent anyway(the head would have been if I had got it in frame))

Also in the feeding station was a Chiff Chaff who does the round of the cages and seems to peck at the seed but dont know if he actually eats any as he is only in a couple of seconds and by the time you get the bins on it he is away to the next one.  Got a couple of pics as he seems to settle on the branches for a little while before he does his circuit.

Also seen were a few Skylarks going over and a couple of Meadow Pipits.  Went down to the Public End to try and get a better view of the ducks and swans that were around but sods law dictated that a lot of them went towards the hide by the time we got down there.  There was still a few Common and Migrant Hawkers around and as soon as the sun popped out so did they.  Couple of other pics from the day:

Mute Swan Sygnets and a few Mallards

Swan in Full Attack Mode Which Fizzled into Nothing

Blackbird Looking A Bit Wet