After ten days of snow and icy conditions I wasn't sure what to expect, but, after leaving the car at the top car park and walking down, I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a lot of open water. The top reservoir was completely ice free, the middle reservoir had just 5% ice cover and even the bottom reservoir had only 50% ice.
Snow by the top reservoir
I had a walk around the reservoirs and recorded the ususal suspects, in about average numbers for the time of year: Mallard (47, lower than normal), Tufted Duck (15, again lower than expected), Goosander (4; 3 males and 1 female), Mandarin Duck (8), Coot (7), Moorhen (5), Grey Heron (2 flying down the valley), Cormorant (1) and Black-headed Gull (43 on the reservoir and c.30 on floods by the main entrance).
The woodland was quite quiet today, but again the ususal suspects (tits and Nuthatch) were seen coming down to seed I put out. The only unusual reports were a flock of c30 Starlings feeding in the fields by the main entrance along with c 20 Fieldfares.
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