So many birds!

We parked the car. We were at stover country park and looking for some birds. We started walking. The path was absolutely alive with birds hopping along, with 4 robins, 2 woodpigeons and 3 blackbirds. We walked down to the edge of the lake and there, were about 50 mallards. Mostly moulting individuals with a few females. On the water, there was a family of swans.

Along with this mix, there were about 10 coots, 1 moorhen and more mallards.

We carried on along the path and came to a small pool connected to the main lake. We were watching a few mandarins when suddenly, a large heron flew right close into the path right by us and flew into the reedbed. He then flew up onto one of the wooden posts and had a bit of a preen.

We started walking around the lake and came to a certain spot in the trees, where a juvenile moorhen was waiting.

We carried on and came to a boardwalk. We went up onto it and found the hedges were full of juvenile birds. There were great tits, blue tits, robins and chaffinches. I even got one to land on my hand! I was really light and its feet just shuffled along my palm. Absolutely incredible!

We carried on and saw a bunch of ducklings heading our way!

Then, I noticed a great crested grebe out on the water. It kept on catching fish and I enjoyed watching it but then suddenly, a blue flash zoomed across the water into the trees. I scanned the trees and there it was, a kingfisher. Wonderful.

We carried on and came to the car park.