Yesterday was my first visit to Linacre of March. I arrived on site at 6.45am and spent two hours walking around all three reservoirs.
As always at this time of the year there were a lot of species singing, including 1 Mistle Thrush, 2 Song Thrushes, Chaffinch, Nuthatch, Woodpigeon, Great and Coal Tit, Robin, Wren and Dunnock. In addition, 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers were heard drumming and a pair of Stock Doves and Jackdaws were exploring potential nest sites.
Out on the water there were 3 Canada Geese (1 pair on the bottom reservoir, and 1 single bird on the middle), 104 Mallards, 90 Tufted Duck, 44 Mandarins, 11 Coots, 9 Moorhens, 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Cormorant, 1 Little Grebe (heard), 3 Great-crested Grebes (2 on the middle reservoir, and 1 on the top), 42 Black-headed Gulls, 1 Common Gull (2nd record of the year!) and 1 male Goosander.
The best sighting of the day, however, was a Woodcock that appeared out of the woods, and flew straight past me along the entire length of the top reservoir!! It was my best ever sighting of this species, as I usually only see them in silhouette in the summer "roding" over woodland, and also a great Linacre record for this rarely-seen, nocturnal species. My last record was a dead bird, seen in January 2020 (see here).
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