Friday 19th April - Swanpool - Kennall Vale - Loe Bar

Sorry for the delay in the post I have been busy getting everything sorted on my new Imac which I got on Tuesday so all my files are still all over the place.

Starting off the day at Swanpool, in search of any more signs of Spring being just around the corner at last. From my visit the previous day I noticed that the coots had built a nest and laid a few eggs in a few locations, today I say even more, in the bright sun they stood out and I counted 4 coots nest and also a Swan Nest which I have no idea how I missed yesterday, its not the smallest thing around.

Mut Swans Nest

Coots Nest

Also I spotted a Jay flying through the trees collect twigs for his nest although it seemed to be taking it into someone back garden so I couldn't see the pairs progress. Another thing to note was the ants which covered some of the plants, clearly collecting food for there colony.

Jay -Garrulus glandarius

After my visit to Swanpool I headed to Kennall Vale to see how Spring was taking hold there, to my surprise it looked almost the same as my previous visit the only real change I noted was the branches I cut down on my volunteer morning a few months ago had started to break down. Although not much was happening at Kennall Vale I had one last place to visit, Loe Bar. Having not been there since our course trip last year, so things were bound to have changed.

After parking up in the car park I headed over the the boating lake that is siuated next to the car park, most of the lake itself was full of Herring Gulls, although at the top end by the cafe was a group of Swans, at first I belived them all to be Mute Swans ( Cygnus olor ) but as I got closer I noticed that one had a yellow bill, I thought I was going mad but after comparing it to the other Swans I realised it was a Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus), my first wild Whooper Swan. After a minute I started to wonder why it was there normal they come down over winter and are gone by early Feburay, so I posted on Facebook to see if anyone knew and it turned out this Swan had been there all winter and didnt seem to want to leave, it will be interested to re-visit the lake and see if it ever does.

Whooper Swan - Cygnus cygnus

After the walk around the lake I made my way over to Loe Bar itself, where it was confronted by a number of lovely scenes of the sun shining, the sky bright blue and the green on the trees starting to show.

As I made my way around through the trees I started to hear the birds calling inpartuclar the Wrens which were singing their hearts out in search of a mate, one was so busy singing that he didnt mind me getting close. 

Wren - Troglodytidae

Another sign of spring was the Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) which covered the ground.

Greater Stitchwort - Stellaria holostea