16th August 2009
I went for a walk around the nearby Anglers’ Lake, at Wintersett, yesterday. On the lake, there were many coots.
Until recently, ducks have been in their eclipse plumage but some drakes are beginning to change into brighter plumage.The number of duck species is still quite limited but will increase as we move into the autumn months, when things such as wigeon and pochard will arrive.
One sign that the seasons are moving on was the presence of many sand martins, which were flying around above the water and over a patch of young trees near the water.
This isn’t an area in which to see breeding sand martins, but I have a mental list of breeding colonies, mostly in Scotland, which I watch out for when I am on my travels. I added another colony to my list recently when I was travelling on the miniature railway between the villages of Ford and Etal in Northumberland.