View over Stockers Lake

Having set off from home under leaden grey skies and driven on the M25 with windscreen wipers on, it didn’t bode well for a morning’s walk around Stocker’s Lake. However, on arrival in the car park, everything suddenly changed – the sun came out, flasks of tea appeared and a few of us scanned the adjacent lake and were rewarded with views of Little Grebe, Coot, Mallard, Mute Swan, Gadwall and Redwing. In the bushes, Chaffinch, Blue and Great Tit could be heard and seen, and after crossing the road to Springwell Lake, we added Goosander, Shoveler and Great Crested Grebe to the list. Taking an anti-clockwise route so that the sun was at our backs, we proceeded along the footpath with the lake on our left and the canal on our right. The first stop allowed us good views of Common and Black Headed Gulls with a solitary Lesser Black Backed Gull all stationed on a small island. Lapwing were spotted on a tern raft but the best ‘find’ at this point were Goldeneye, fairly close in, affording stunning views of the males displaying to the females.

Close scrutiny of the boggy area near the footpath which is often the haunt of the elusive Water Rail yielded nothing, but above, a Treecreeper, 2 Nuthatches and Siskin flitting through the branches left us with the usual ‘crick in the neck’ syndrome. The Kingfisher Hide sadly didn’t live up to its name but we added Cormorant, Grey Heron and Pochard to the list. From the last hide along this section, we had hoped to find Smew, which had been reported earlier, but no luck. Most of the group scuttled off as the weather took a turn for the worse, the wind picking up suddenly and making it difficult to hold scopes and binoculars steady.

Crossing the bridge over the canal, we scanned the favoured ‘Little Owl’ trees but with no luck, despite one having been seen previously in the week. House Sparrows, Great and Blue Tits were in perpetual motion on the feeders in the garden but no sign of the Grey Wagtail by the lock gates. Crossing the causeway, we again picked up the Goosanders in the scope but they were hugging the bank, trying to keep out of the wind and rain as well! This eased up as Kevin Holt led us to a ‘75% definite site’ for a Kingfisher and what did we see? Nothing!

The homeward trek yielded little to add to the list apart from Starling, Blackbird, Wren, Fieldfare and Long Tailed Tits but the sun did reappear to enable us to have further sightings of the Goosander on Springwell Lake. Overall, an enjoyable morning with 49 species seen. Thanks to Gerry Studd and Kevin Holt for leading.

Click here for a map. (TQ041932)

Click here for information about Stockers Lake.

Click here for the list of birds seen.