Fourteen of us met in the car park at Moor Green Lakes.  The first sighting was what turned out to be a Mistle Thrush sitting on top of a tree in The Paddock.

Taking the recently opened path around the New Workings, we quickly saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker and could hear a Nuthatch calling.   Several Redwing flew over and one sat more obligingly in a tree.  Canada and Greylag Geese flew noisily overhead at intervals and Jays were very active. We came to a pond which held Mallard, Teal, and Gadwall and as we watched them a Water Rail could be heard calling.  Two Stonechat flitted around in the grass and on the path.  A bridge over a ditch was our next stop and in a small dead tree numerous passerines were landing and taking to the skies again.  On closer inspection the birds were a selection of Meadow Pipits, Goldfinch and Redpoll.  There was also a large flock of Redpoll (estimated to be about 100 birds) in a nearby birch tree which also contained a single Siskin and a single Brambling. Unsurprisingly, a Sparrowhawk was seen chasing some of the finches at one stage. A Kestrel also gave some good views at various stages throughout our walk.

We heard a Goldcrest and saw a flock of Long Tailed Tits as we walked further around the path. The circular route took us back to our more usual view over the water and here we could make out a Great White Egret and a surprise lone male Pintail.  Two Egyptian Geese flew in as we watched and two Little Egret flew overhead.  Some of the group picked out a Snipe which unfortunately disappeared before everyone had a chance to see it.  There was a brief sound of a Skylark singing although no sighting of one. The usual collection of Herring Gull, Black Headed Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull and Cormorants were out on the water. A group of Shoveler worked their way down one of the channels.  We joined the path by the river Blackwater from here and continued to the viewpoint along Grove lake where large numbers of Wigeon, Tufted Duck and Coot could be seen along with one or two Great Crested Grebe.

Unfortunately the Tawny Owl was not in it’s usual tree nearby and so we returned to the car park stopping briefly at the Colebrook Lake hide which added Lapwing and Little Grebe to the list taking us to a total of 55 species in all.