Confused Grebes and waterfowl galore

Finally, a dry day with some actual sunshine! I spent a few hours visiting two of our local Country Parks; Lydiard Park and Coate Water. Both are on the edges of Swindon, and heavily used by families, runners, dog walkers and so on - but that doesn't stop them being home to a good range of wildlife. 

When we first lived in Swindon, the lake at Lydiard was almost completely silted up with a 100 years worth of muck, but after extensive work back in 2007,  the 18th century landscape features have been restored. It's one of my favourite spots for photographing grebes and other waterfowl, as it's easy to get down for a water-level view.

Great Crested Grebe

This morning, there were plenty of Tufted ducks dabbling around, alongside the resident pair of Mutes Swans and their 4 signets from last season, plus Little Grebes, Moorhens & Coots. It's also a good place for woodland birds; this morning the main sightings were a Great Crested Woodpecker, an entertaining flock of Long-tailed Tits,  Mistle Thrush, as well as Blue Tits, Coal Tits & Great Tits.

The main Lake at Coate Water was originally created as a Headwater tank for the Wiltshire & Berkshire Canal in the 1820's. A smaller lake, now a Nature Reserve, was added in the 1970's. Most of the area is now a SSSI, largely due to the wildflower meadows - a real haven for butterflies & bees in the summer. Both lakes attract a wide range of wintering waterfowl, and the park is also home to a wide range of woodland species - so I'm a regular visitor at anytime of year. Today, I was glad of my wellies - everywhere is thick mud & deep puddles!

There's currently a large group of at least 24 Goosanders wintering on the main lake, although they're hard to get a close view of, as they are quite shy & prefer to stick to the inaccessible areas. I managed to get a few shots as one obliged with a fly past! 

Goosander - Male

Lots of other waterfowl around too; Little Grebes, Canada Geese, Tufted Ducks, Gadwalls, Cormorants, Mute Swans & 10 Great Crested Grebes.
One pair of Grebes seemed to have been rather confused by the mild weather & today's sunshine, as they were displaying their courtship head-weaving 'dance'. The earliest I've seen signs of this behaviour in the past has been around the second week of February.

Great Crested  Grebes 'dancing'

A large flock of 100+ Lapwings flew over - presumably they'd been feeding on some of the surrounding fields.

Lapwings

Plenty of woodland bird activity too - Green  and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, more Long-tailed, Blue & Great Tits, plus a Marsh Tit. A Grey Wagtail & a pair of Pied Wagtails looked to be having a good time flitting about.

All in all, a pleasant way to spend a morning - let's hope we get a decent weekend!