Sutton Park.

Today it was a trip out to Sutton  Park even though I woke at 5:30 a.m. with a pounding headache and felt a bit sick but you can't let that keep you indoors when it's not raining and there's birding to be done.

For a change I'll start off with the bad, even though they happen in nature certain things are never nice to see, firstly I saw a Kestrel swooping over a pool where the Mute Swans and Mallards etc were, which had the poor Mallards in quite a frenzy flying around the pool and it then flew up into a copse which I always walk to and when I got there I saw something on the floor which just happened to be a Kestrel which upon closer inspection had a poor juvenile Blue Tit in it's talons which even when frightened off by my presence still took it's prey off with it when it flew high into the trees and then secondly it was initially great to see plenty of Linnet in amongst the Gorse happily singing away when I noticed three Magpie squabbling over something on the ground in amongst the Gorse and I knew instinctively they'd got something and when I had a look through the binoculars my suspicions were proved correct and one them had a juvenile bird which looked days away from fledging and at the same time a frantic Linnet flew out of the Gorse so I can only guess the victim was a poor Linnet nestling. Still to counteract that it was nice to see five healthy Cygnets and plenty of Blue and Great Tit juveniles foraging in amongst the many trees that adorn the park.

 Also nice to see were Green Woodpecker, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipit and Willow Warbler,

Birds seen today were Kestrel, Linnet, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipit, Willow Warbler, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Chihhchaff, Robin, Starling, Green Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Canada Goose as well as the following juveniles, Cygnets (5), Blue Tit, Great Tit and a Coot sitting on a huge nest.