Watermead Park

April 1, 2001

We visited the Birstall and Wanlip areas of the Watermead park on pleasant first spring day (Max temp around 17 Celsius). It was sunny and not too windy. As a result lots of people in the park. But after 4 PM it became more quiet. At three places Chiffchaffs could be heard. My first this season. Eagerly awaited for after 6 years birding in Japan.

Watermead Park can be reached can be reached by bus 66 to Birstall (2 connections per hour on Saturday, 1 connection on Sunday) from Leicester or bus 104/105 to Loughborough via Thurmaston.

Highlights besides the singing Chiffchaffs were a Ringed Plover and a Little Ringed Plover, two Lesser Redpolls, a group of Fieldfares, one Common Tern and two Sand Martins. And a surprisingly tame Weasel, apparently entirely adapted to cope with unobserving spring crowds.

  1. Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus
  2. Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo
  3. Grey Heron Ardea cinerea: several breeding pairs, and the young visible, some must have been already 4 weeks old
  4. Mute Swan Cygnus olor
  5. Greylag Goose Anser anser
  6. Canada Goose Branta canadensis
  7. Eurasian Wigeon Anas penelope
  8. Eurasian Teal Anas crecca
  9. Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
  10. Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula
  11. Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus
  12. Common Coot Fulica atra
  13. Eurasian Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus
  14. Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius
  15. Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula
  16. Common Redshank Tringa totanus: 12 ex
  17. Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus
  18. Mew Gull Larus canus
  19. Common Tern Sterna hirundo (red legs and red beak with black tip
  20. Common Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus
  21. Green Woodpecker Picus viridis
  22. Sky Lark Alauda arvensis singing Wanlip South GP
  23. Sand Martin Riparia riparia 2 ex, Wanlip South GP
  24. Pied Wagtail Motacilla albam (One spec seemed rather M. a. alba, Wanlip South GP)
  25. Winter Wren Troglodytes troglodytes
  26. Hedge Accentor Prunella modularis (three (males?) were displaying, wing stretching above the back.
  27. European Robin Erithacus rubecula
  28. Common Blackbird Turdus merula
  29. Fieldfare Turdus pilaris c30 ex flying northwards, calling loudly, Wanlip South GP
  30. Song Thrush Turdus philomelos
  31. Mistle Thrush Turdus viscivorus
  32. Common Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita
  33. Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus
  34. Blue Tit Parus caeruleus
  35. Great Tit Parus major
  36. Black-billed Magpie Pica pica
  37. Carrion Crow Corvus corone
  38. House Sparrow Passer domesticus
  39. Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus
  40. Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs
  41. European Greenfinch Carduelis chloris
  42. European Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis
  43. Lesser Redpoll Carduelis (flammea) cabaret (Two brownish redpolls near birdhide)
  44. Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus

Fer-Jan de Vries

Nomenclature follows Voous’s List of Recent Holarctic Bird Species (BOU 1977, revised edition). English names are as in BOU Checklist of Birds of Britain and Ireland (6th Edition, 1992)