The sky was cloudless this morning and the birds had made the most of this by constant squabbling on the lake especially the coots. One was sitting on it's nest preening but I couldn't get near enough to see closely as it was right next to a Canada Goose nest:

I counted five Canada Goose nests today, the one above having four eggs. All had the females incubating while I was there and there was only a sign of one broken egg taken by a predator. While I was watching, a crow tucked into a dead fish for it's breakfast:

The warblers were out in force today - blackcap, chiffchaff, garden warblers were very active today in the blackthorn and a couple of willow warbler singing their scales:

The wood pigeon are back in abundance and the black-headed gulls conspicuous by their absence, probably nesting on the tern rafts in the gravel pits a few miles away.

There were two deer barking on the other side of the river in the beech woods, not so 'yappy' as a muntjac, so perhaps they were roe deer as the bark was deeper. The noise carried a long distance either to sound an alarm for danger or maybe territorial.

A lot of bumblebees were around today, such as this buff-tailed. Similar to the white-tailed bumblebee, their bands are darker and more orange:

The glaucous sedge is out in flower now and I saw a solitary orange-tip butterfly on the way back to the car.

There were dozens of snails on the move today along the grassy towpath. The brown lipped snails:

And white lipped snails too:

The Canada Geese were everywhere too and seemed to have made nests just by plonking themselves down and deciding that would do. Some nests were very exposed. This does give the advantage of the female having unobstructed views all around her from the nest, but some had already been the victim of predators:

 

 

The nests were not always guarded with the parents feeding on the bank, just coming nearer as I walked past. The nests are made of dry reeds and moss and lined with down and some body feathers. As my chickens go broody, they are left with the whole breast area completely bare from lining the nest which I expect is the case with the Canada's as well. Incubation is about 25-30 days which means there will hopefully be some goslings soon from the first nest found:

The swans were picking off the buds at the water's edge:

And there were five heron around the lake today, the most I have seen on one visit:

 

 

 

The great crested grebe were busy squabbling today with a lot of braying and chasing away of other males:

 

 

There were some preening together but no courtship dances while I was there:

A female reed bunting was poking about the reeds and water's edge perhaps trying to find a suitable nesting area:

And a male pheasant was in the field:

Love was in the air today as I walked into the copse and saw a female Canada Goose sitting on her nest. Not a very good place to nest as it isn't very safe from predators:

The male saw me and came charging over to hiss at me to keep my distance. As I left, another couple were going through their courtship display in the water before mating. The male was keeping his head and neck very low and both were submerging their upper bodies in the water to splash over themselves:

Although ducks tend to find a new mate each year, geese bond and stay together for life. Mated pairs will not only raise their young together but also look out for each other over the course of their lives:

 

Walking further around the lake, I found a solitary cowslip:

And also an old piece of tree bark with a couple of lichens and moss on. I know nothing about these but am all set to buy a guidebook to help me. From what I could identify, the orange is common orange lichen or Xanthoria parietina and the grey is foliose lichen. If you look closely at the orange lichen, there are small cups present:

Swallows were playing around the lake today and in the large oak tree, three cormorants were sitting, one drying off wings. I haven't seen them in this tree before:

There were also blue tit:

A grey heron:

And a very poor shot of a singing chiffchaff's bottom:

There were a lot more flowers starting to show including white dead nettle, more lesser celandine and ground ivy.

I wandered into the park itself to try and spot some butterflies without luck. I did find a female mallard in a plant pot though, which she had also chosen to nest in last year: