Popped down to the park in the hope of some returning warblers and finished up with 47 species, but none of the hoped for species of warbler - still a bit too early after all. The visit of an RAF A400M Atlas transport plane to the airport next door gave me some nice photo opportunities with the local Skylarks while I waited for the plane to leave.
The cold weather seemed to limit the number of dog-walkers (unless the majority are going elsewhere while Fido can't run around uncontrolled all over the park), though one older woman with 2 spaniels who knew about the reasons merely said that she knew they were meant to be on a lead and that she tried to keep them off the hill - the dogs weren't listening to her one little bit just before I spoke to her, as she made a rather half-hearted attempt to look like she gave a damn what they were doing. She didn't put them on leads after I spoke to her either. Another couple were walking round the raised bit on the hill with a dog on a fully extended lead wandering on the slope (pretty much where I'd watched the Skylarks earlier). I shouted to them to ask them to keep the dog on the inside of the raised area, but again it was a case of in one ear and out the other. The only other dog walker I spoke to, happily put her dog on the lead and apologised for not reading the sign she had just walked past. The few other dog walkers seemed to be obeying the signs.
Species seen - Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Common Gull, Cormorant, Curlew, Dunnock, Gadwall (pair), Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Linnet, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan (pair), Oystercatcher (pair), Pied Wagtail, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Ringed Plover (pair), Robin, Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Shelduck, Skylark, Song Thrush, Starling (3), Stock Dove, Swallow, Teal, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellowhammer.