January 2023 King George V Reservoir Walk – report

With heavy rain and gusty winds forecast, our annual reservoir visit was going to be potentially challenging. Luckily the rain was not actually as bad as predicted for the hardy souls (below) attending this walk.

Our initial scan over the south basin revealed groups of Coot, Pochard and Tufted Duck quietly feeding with a lone Mute Swan drifting nearby. A female Kestrel (image below) was then spotted as it landed on a fence post and gave us a great opportunity to watch as the bird scanned the ground below for signs of movement from unsuspecting prey.

Two Little Grebes were busy popping down under and up again as they dived for aquatic morsels near the jetty and several Great Crested Grebes were also out on the water most obviously in their winter plumage, but one interestingly had its full summer plumage. We wondered if this was left over from the previous breeding season, or if it had already developed its new spring plumage? A Pied Wagtail was spotted feeding on the concrete edging picking off insects and a Grey Wagtail was briefly seen dropping onto the far bank of the relief channel.

Another waterfowl species was then seen flying up relatively high which turned out to be a male Goosander. It looked like it had taken off from the relief channel where, quite often, we have spotted this species in the past. Corvids were a plenty on the surrounding grass bank with the likes of Jackdaw, Carrion Crow and Magpie all taking advantage of the soft ground as they probed for food.

A Cormorant battled against the weather as it flew over the water and we could just make out a Wren singing in some scrub above the howl of the wind which thankfully was coming from a south westerly direction so at least was not too cold! We eventually reached the causeway splitting the two basins where more numbers of Coot and Tufted Duck (image below) had congregated.

After carefully scanning through binoculars we picked up a pair of Goldeneye and the male’s striking green head plumage was showing nicely through the gloomy light. The weather was starting to worsen so the walk back rather turned to a march and at the car park a few Moorhen and more Carrion Crows were feeding on the grassy area that had been well nibbled by the resident sheep!

Thanks to Richard Nelson for this write-up for our walk on Saturday 14th January 2023.