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| Black-headed Gull |
Went for a walk around Whitlingham Broad with Mum this afternoon. Though the sun is out, bright and cheerful, it is cold and feels like winter has arrived. I decided that we should walk anti-clockwise around the lake from the car park this time. The path was muddy in places and we had to dodge large puddles, but besides that the path was fine.
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| Black-headed Gulls on railings |
Black-headed gulls were everywhere with large masses of their white bodies filling parts of the lake and sitting on posts and railings. Amongst them, I spot a common gull with its yellow legs and bill. A kingfisher whizzed past us along the shore and over the path behind us before vanishing completely. Mum missed it, the kingfisher was just too fast for her.
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| Gulls everywhere! |
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| Common Gull |
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| Male Tufted Duck |
Wildfowl flocked together along the edges and sheltered areas of the lake. Trees kept us hidden from sight, allowing us to get good views of them as they kept on feeding undisturbed by our presence. Most of them were tufted ducks and pochards, both have recently returned for the winter in greater numbers than during the summer months. They look handsome. The male pochard's red heads were gleaming in the sunshine, while the tufted duck drake's white flanks made them stand out from the crowd with their yellow eyes pierce back at me like glowing little suns. We also saw great crested grebes, mallards, coots, mute swans, a heron, cormorants, greylag and Egyptian geese.
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| Female Tufted Duck |
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| More Tufted Ducks |
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| Pochards |
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| Cormorants |
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| Great Crested Grebes |
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| Coot |
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| Mute Swan |
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| Juvenile Mute Swan |
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| Grey Heron |
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Egyptian Goose |
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| Greylag Goose |
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