[FONT="]On Sunday 8 Jan I set out to put my New Year resolution into practise. I’ve decided to make the Northern part of Roundhay Park, along with the Gorge area, my patch for the next year. This thread will be a log of my efforts.
As can be seen from the Google map page, there are a couple of golf courses bordering the area so I possibly may get lucky finding open ground species like larks etc. [/FONT] [FONT="] I know that historically the area hosted all 3 woodpeckers so I’m going to see if I can find the commoner two species, I don’t hold out much hope of lesser ‘pecker but you never know. [/FONT] [FONT="]By skirting the very Northern tip of Waterloo Lake I should avoid most of the crowds without missing too many birds. The Southern end of the Lake is generally so busy with people that the only birds seen are the water birds by the café.[/FONT] [FONT="]
So around 1.30 I set off on the short walk from my home to the start of the route I plan to follow. A red kite effortlessly gliding over the treetops was a great way to start the day’s tally. As I approached the park I saw a dozen fieldfares flying away from the area, hoping this wasn’t a bad sign I entered Ram Wood. Several wood pigeon were up in the trees, as well as a fair number of jackdaws. Their constant moving made any attempt at counting the flock nigh on impossible but I’d hazard a guess at there being at least 20 birds. Although I could hear a couple of robins they were keeping well hidden, much easier were the blue tits feeding in the branches.
As the wood gave way to the footpath around the Upper Lake I could see that the bulk of the lake was still frozen over, even given the fact that most of the last week the temperature had been above freezing and the stream feeding the lake was still running freely. A small area around the fountains was still ice free and there I found half dozen tufted duck, a couple of mute swans and the best part of a hundred black-headed gulls. The latter took off whilst I was there and departed to the roost at Eccup, judging by their direction of flight. There were one or two moorhen present but no coot which was unusual as the latter do nest on the lake. All the mallards were taking advantage of the unfrozen feeder stream and could be heard and occasionally seen by the small island.[/FONT] [FONT="]
From the lakeside I took the path downhill to Waterloo Lake, this area has several non-native trees as well as some rhododendrons so not great for the birds, this was borne out by the fact that I couldn’t find any birds here. The same went for Waterloo Lake, which was still almost completely iced up. There were no gulls on the various posts in the lake, and not even any moorhens by the small ice free area at the feeder stream. This wasn’t looking very good for a birding report.[/FONT]
[FONT="]From the here I then turned to take the footpath into the Gorge, the main feeder stream for Waterloo Lake flows through this area and the banks on both sides are wooded but are not really very Gorge-like. The outfall stream from the Upper Lake enters this stream in the Gorge. Once I was well inside the Gorge I started to find the birds, I caught up with a mixed feeding party of long-tailed tits, with accompanying coal tits, blue tits and chaffinches all busy searching the branches for any food. I grilled the flock as well as I could but couldn’t find any treecreepers or nuthatches. After moving out of the Braim wood area to the more lightly wooded aspect on the eastern side I found another feeding flock, again largely long-tailed tits but this time there were goldcrests with them, as well as the blue tits and great tits. There were several robins in this area as well, which judging by the song is probably at the junction of maybe 3 separate territories, this could be good a good area to linger later in the year.[/FONT] [FONT="]
At the top end of the Gorge I caught up with a third flock of long-tailed tits, without any accompanying species this time, but it was much the largest of the flocks as there were at least 15 birds. [/FONT] [FONT="]Leaving the Gorge, I entered a wooded area that is sandwiched between the Ring Road and the houses along West Park Drive. Here I found several blackbirds, including at least 3 pairs of birds, there were also several redwings feeding on the ground which flew off in alarm as I approached. Couldn’t get an accurate count due to the undergrowth but I’d guesstimate at least 6 birds but probably more. I also logged a couple of pairs of collared doves here as well as a possible rookery; there were nests but no birds in attendance.
By the time I’d reached the end of this area I’d been out for a good couple of hours and seen a small number of species but good numbers of each. As a first trip I was happy with the result, however I think I’ll try to make my subsequent visits either early morning (if Sunday) or on my mid-week rest day. The dog-walkers in the park are a flamin’ nuisance, not so much the dogs but the owners shouting for them, you sometimes had no chance of hearing any subsong etc due to their vocalisations.[/FONT]
As can be seen from the Google map page, there are a couple of golf courses bordering the area so I possibly may get lucky finding open ground species like larks etc. [/FONT] [FONT="] I know that historically the area hosted all 3 woodpeckers so I’m going to see if I can find the commoner two species, I don’t hold out much hope of lesser ‘pecker but you never know. [/FONT] [FONT="]By skirting the very Northern tip of Waterloo Lake I should avoid most of the crowds without missing too many birds. The Southern end of the Lake is generally so busy with people that the only birds seen are the water birds by the café.[/FONT] [FONT="]
So around 1.30 I set off on the short walk from my home to the start of the route I plan to follow. A red kite effortlessly gliding over the treetops was a great way to start the day’s tally. As I approached the park I saw a dozen fieldfares flying away from the area, hoping this wasn’t a bad sign I entered Ram Wood. Several wood pigeon were up in the trees, as well as a fair number of jackdaws. Their constant moving made any attempt at counting the flock nigh on impossible but I’d hazard a guess at there being at least 20 birds. Although I could hear a couple of robins they were keeping well hidden, much easier were the blue tits feeding in the branches.
As the wood gave way to the footpath around the Upper Lake I could see that the bulk of the lake was still frozen over, even given the fact that most of the last week the temperature had been above freezing and the stream feeding the lake was still running freely. A small area around the fountains was still ice free and there I found half dozen tufted duck, a couple of mute swans and the best part of a hundred black-headed gulls. The latter took off whilst I was there and departed to the roost at Eccup, judging by their direction of flight. There were one or two moorhen present but no coot which was unusual as the latter do nest on the lake. All the mallards were taking advantage of the unfrozen feeder stream and could be heard and occasionally seen by the small island.[/FONT] [FONT="]
From the lakeside I took the path downhill to Waterloo Lake, this area has several non-native trees as well as some rhododendrons so not great for the birds, this was borne out by the fact that I couldn’t find any birds here. The same went for Waterloo Lake, which was still almost completely iced up. There were no gulls on the various posts in the lake, and not even any moorhens by the small ice free area at the feeder stream. This wasn’t looking very good for a birding report.[/FONT]
[FONT="]From the here I then turned to take the footpath into the Gorge, the main feeder stream for Waterloo Lake flows through this area and the banks on both sides are wooded but are not really very Gorge-like. The outfall stream from the Upper Lake enters this stream in the Gorge. Once I was well inside the Gorge I started to find the birds, I caught up with a mixed feeding party of long-tailed tits, with accompanying coal tits, blue tits and chaffinches all busy searching the branches for any food. I grilled the flock as well as I could but couldn’t find any treecreepers or nuthatches. After moving out of the Braim wood area to the more lightly wooded aspect on the eastern side I found another feeding flock, again largely long-tailed tits but this time there were goldcrests with them, as well as the blue tits and great tits. There were several robins in this area as well, which judging by the song is probably at the junction of maybe 3 separate territories, this could be good a good area to linger later in the year.[/FONT] [FONT="]
At the top end of the Gorge I caught up with a third flock of long-tailed tits, without any accompanying species this time, but it was much the largest of the flocks as there were at least 15 birds. [/FONT] [FONT="]Leaving the Gorge, I entered a wooded area that is sandwiched between the Ring Road and the houses along West Park Drive. Here I found several blackbirds, including at least 3 pairs of birds, there were also several redwings feeding on the ground which flew off in alarm as I approached. Couldn’t get an accurate count due to the undergrowth but I’d guesstimate at least 6 birds but probably more. I also logged a couple of pairs of collared doves here as well as a possible rookery; there were nests but no birds in attendance.
By the time I’d reached the end of this area I’d been out for a good couple of hours and seen a small number of species but good numbers of each. As a first trip I was happy with the result, however I think I’ll try to make my subsequent visits either early morning (if Sunday) or on my mid-week rest day. The dog-walkers in the park are a flamin’ nuisance, not so much the dogs but the owners shouting for them, you sometimes had no chance of hearing any subsong etc due to their vocalisations.[/FONT]