Apart from Trimley Marshes, Loompit Lake is the only fresh water habitat on the river Orwell. As a result it is an important place for wintering and nesting wildfowl. At this time of year wildfowl numbers are quite low with the maximum peak around late summer/early autumn period. The most numerous wildfowl was the GADWALL, with over 100 present of this discrete, grey duck. There were also smaller numbers of COOT and TUFTED DUCK out on the water, but they didn't break double figures.
In one corner of the lake large numbers of CORMORANT had started to arrive, as a prelude to the breeding season. Around 200 pairs nest in trees in this corner of the lake. This area was strictly reserved for the cormorants so there were few other birds there.
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Adding a taste of the exotic was a pair of BLACK SWANS. Now I can't count these birds on my bird list as these birds did not arrive here naturally - the nearest population is in Australia! This pair had probably escaped from captivity, so good on them. They still provided a good sight.
There weren't too many small birds about - this STONECHAT, a GREY WAGTAIL and a ROCK PIPT.
It was approaching high tide and most of the mudflats had become submerged. Levington Creek is the last place in the area to get covered in water, so birds are pushed further in as the water rises, so there are large flocks of waders and WIGEON there. It was all pretty much the usual suspects - REDSHANK, DUNLIN, GREY PLOVER, CURLEW, OYSTERCATCHER, GODWITS. There were small numbers of BRENT GEESE about as well.
Okay, so it was a fairly bog standard early winter's day, November always seems to be a fairly uneventful month as Autumn migration has finished and Winter hasn't properly begun yet. But I'm glad that these places still exist in such an industrialised countryside and our feathered friends can keep a toe hold in this world.
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