Sunshine, clear skies, no wind, lots of visitors...and 83 bird species reported by the visitors and our volunteers. No-one relocated the great grey shrike, so we have to assume it has moved on, but keen-eyed and keen-eared people did find bearded reedlings, bramblings, siskins and redpolls, a marsh harrier, goldeneyes, chiffchaffs, water rails, a little stint, a common sandpiper, stonechats and a bittern.
Many visitors, including some who had come from St Albans for a day out, stayed for the starling roost at Holywell Lake. We had only about 2500 tonight, but they still gave an impressive performance, creating all sorts of shapes in the sky. Strung out like a ribbon, loosely bunched into a doughnut shape, or tightly packed into a ball, they can hardly fail to impress. When so many birds fly close by, you can hear their wings beating.
After some time of formation flying, a group of several hundred birds seemed to be sucked down an invisible funnel into the reeds. The flock circled, and then the next batch would dive down into the same area - I can just imagine all the shuffling that happens, to make space on the reed stems for the next intake. The procedure continued until tha last group went down.
Some of the people were watching a starling roost for the very first time, and I think starlings now have some new ambassadors.
So, what about the other 7500 or so starlings that roosted here last night? It appears that many of them decided to roost in the reeds at the nearby Ferry Pond. Some visitors were in a position where they could see both areas, and they told me that the Ferry Pond birds didn't do any formation flying, but went straight down into the reeds.
Contractors for the County Council will be complete their refurbishing work on the bailey bridge on our entrance road on Wednesday 20 October, effectively closing the road for one day only. Motorists can still drive to our car park by coming through Fen Drayton village, but this road is badly pot-holed between the village and the gravelled section of the byway. Some holes are deep and potentially savage to your car!