Rawcliffe Lake update

Nothing much to report since the excitement of the Little Egret a couple of months back, just the usual Mallards and Moorhens, the latter have done very well this year though it seems we've lost the Coots for the time being, the feral Geese continue to come and go and there's a few more Gulls around now heralding the approach of winter, mainly Black Headed but also one or two Common and Herring Gulls with them. A lone Great Crested Grebe returned a few weeks back and seems quite settled, it was joined by another in full winter dress this week also a couple of Grey Wagtails have been around for the last three or four weeks plus the Sparrowhawk continues to be seen on a regular basis and a small party of Bullfinches have been around just lately. A few Chiffchaffs have been moving around with the Tit flocks through September and a late Swift was feeding with the House Martins on the evening of the 6th, most of the House Martins had gone by the weekend of 20th/21st with just small groups of Swallows moving through thereafter, the last ones seen on the 30th, I followed them south for a week, more on that later.