Hollingworth Lake

Kingfisher

The weather was looking a bit iffy so I decided not to go out anywhere particularly exposed and bobbed over to Hollingworth Lake. The weather forecast predicted light showers, which proved to be a tad optimistic. The thin drizzle as I arrived at the lakeside turned into heavy rain by the time I'd walked round as far as the old activity centre. I was cheered up a bit to see a kingfisher on the old pontoon.

All the small birds were, understandably, staying undercover out of the rain. Unlike me, on a doomed errand standing by the cow field scanning the hawthorns on the off-chance of any passage migrants. The only exceptions were the flock of swallows noisily rainbathing on the telegraph lines.

Swallows rainbathing

Coming back to the lake I could see a lot of gulls on the reserve area. Most of them were black-headed gulls with a couple of dozen lesser black-backs of various ages and a handful of herring gulls. The Caspian gull had been reported again over the weekend so I stared hard at any subadult gulls with white heads but they were all lesser black-backs. Thirty or so lapwings mingled with the gulls and a dozen cormorants loafed by the shoreline.

Black-headed, lesser black-backed and herring gulls, lapwings and cormorants

I spent a short time in the hide. Most of the gulls were just out of line of sight so I had no more joy on a Caspian gull hunt. There weren't any waders on the pool but there was an interesting selection of ducks with half a dozen teal and a couple of pairs of shovelers joining the mallards. A couple of ducklings I noticed last time are now half grown.

Heron

Retracing my steps (it was too wet and windy to traipse down Rakewood Road in the open), a grey heron flew in and started fishing in the shallows. Back at the old activity centre the kingfisher had gone but there was a juvenile great crested grebe fishing in the little bight there.

The combination of back to school and lousy weather meant it was a lot quieter than it has been for months so I finally felt OK about getting a bag of chips to eat by the lakeside. There are worse ways to spend a damp afternoon.