I fancied a bit of a change this morning and being aware that a couple of Ring-necked Parakeets had been seen there yesterday, Earlswood seemed to be the obvious place.
Within fifteen minutes of arrival a familiar squawk heralded a fly-by of one of the Parakeets, so that was the year tick in the bag. I could now relax and do some proper birding.
Normally when I go to Earlswood I miss out one of the lakes, so this time I was determined to walk around all three. It soon became clear it would be a quiet visit. There was hardly any overhead passage, just the odd Meadow Pipit, and a few distant Siskin calls which I suspected came from birds in the surrounding trees.
I took to photographing the close stuff.
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| A juvenile Great Crested Grebe |
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| A juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull |
At Windmill Pool it was nice to confirm the continued presence of a Common Sandpiper and the Wigeon. I saw the Parakeet again in flight, counted five Teal peeking out of the bistort, and picked up a small party of Swallows and House Martins. By now it was quite warm, and there were plenty of insects around to delay their departure. Nevertheless they were gone in minutes.
One curiosity was a strange noise near the stump at the end of Terry's Pool. It sounded a bit like someone trying and failing to fire up a distant chain saw. I wondered if it was some kind of amphibian, and after playing the calls of various likely suspects back home have concluded it was a Common Frog, although I'm surprised it would be calling at this time of the year.
Perhaps it was really was a guy with a chain saw.
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