In Search of Migrants but Finding Something Unusual

It’s April, so the migrants should really be moving through now, and so I decided to ignore the news and weather forecasts which were telling me there were harmful levels of pollution across the country, I had to get out to the patch (if I’m honest it was pretty hazy but not as bad as I’ve seen it in the past) and hunt down some summer migrants.

In Search of Migrants but Finding Something Unusual

And so onto the patch I went, checking the lake first there was no sign of any passing hirundines (swallows, martins etc.) in fact my first scan saw very little, and so I moved on round the lake, to see if there was anything else instead, but my eyes were drawn to a small group of duck further up the lake, an area I could not see from my first vantage point, and I was presented with a small flock of Tufted Duck, 5 in total (4 male 1 female) by my reckoning this is the largest flock recorded on Lodge Lake!

Rabbit – Dansteed, Milton Keynes 2014

Searching for Blackcaps

There was little else of note around the lake and so I headed off down river (towards the A5 bridge) in search of Blackcap to photograph, it wasn’t long till I had seen one (in the same area I had one 2 days ago), however after 2 hours waiting to photograph him, at no point did he perch in a decent position, and so I gave up, but not after photographing Stock Dove and Blue Tit, as well as having Grey Wagtail and Pied Wagtail fly over.

Stock Dove – Loughton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

Blue Tit – Loughton Valley Park, Milton Keynes

I headed back home stopping briefly to photograph Little Egret by the road bridge (Dansteed) and a nesting pair of Long-tailed Tit flying in and out of their nest site right next to the foot path and The Kam Tong Gardens Restaurant. I do love these birds.