A Nightingale Sang in Cotswold Water Park...

...well, very briefly it did.

I paid my first ever visit to Cotswold Water Park yesterday; its name is a bit of a misnomer. Its actually a collection of more than 100 flooded gravel pits, rather than what I would imagine a Water Park to be; not a flume in sight.

My 'Where To Watch Birds' book gave its usual very vague directions, and said to head for lake 36 as a good place to start*. Not very easy without a map, so after a little to-ing and fro-ing we eventually settled on Swillbrook Lakes, a Wiltshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve bordering a building site.

The very first bird spotted was a distant gull with a strange flappy un-gull-like flight. My binoculars revealed it to be a Tern, which I could confidently id as Common, seeing the information board at the entrance had told me I'd see one. Still, my first ever tern - a good start. Only coots on the first lake (46 or 48, couldn't tell which - thats the lake number by the way, there were 2 coots on it). The information boards said to look out for nightingales, and so I duly did, and saw a couple furtively darting into bushes. Glimpses were frustratingly brief and they weren't singing much at all, but I heard and saw enough to be confident they were Nightingales (plain brown above, whitish below, slightly bigger but very Robin-like), so thats a second new species in five minutes! Also, buzzing around overhead were three or four hirundines which were probably sand martins. I couldn't definitively say they weren't house martins, but in terms of habitat (gravel pits!) and what was on the information boards, sand martins seem more likely.

We walked on, and reached a fairly unscenic building site (part of the very odd Lower Mill Estate development, the UK's 'first residential nature reserve') and saw another Nightingale, as well other small brownish birds, the only reasonably certain ID I got was a Willow Warbler (nice to be able to id a non-singing one!) although there is always the possibility it was a chiffchaff!

Lots and lots of butterflies (peacocks, painted ladies, brimstone, red admirals amongst lots of unidentified whites and browns of various sizes and a couple of blues!) and we walked on past the development, flushing a male bullfinch and to another lake where I really couldn't be sure we were on private property or a public footpath (contradictory signposts). Assuming no harm would come of it, we pressed on into a field where a sign told us to be aware of nesting Little Ringed Plovers on the ground. Unfortunately, we weren't to see one, which is a shame as it would have been another first. We did see though, lots of swans, coots, great crested grebes, black-headed gulls and lots and lots of Common Terns (red bill with the dark tip!), in flight, on land and in the air, some hovering like kestrels.

We came to a bizarre raised stile which a sign said was raised over an electric fence to keep the beavers in the adjacent field/lake. Not sure how I feel about 'reintroduced' beavers which are essentially captive so we walked on past, rather than entering and were rewarded by a hobby swooping down, picking up some prey (assume dragonfly) and proceed to eat it in the air. Great sight! On we walked, aiming for the bird hide on the opposite side of the lake to where we'd started. A kestrel overhead, more terns, grebes, coots and then we eventually came through a gate that told us retrospectively we'd be on strictly private property but then told us the footpath was open April - September. So I'm still no clearer as to whether we were supposed to be there!

The hide was closed for 'maintenance' although I'm sure its more to do with the fact its directly facing the glass-fronted buildings of the very posh Lower Mill development!!

We sat down to eat our sandwiches on the side of the lake, and the red arrows flew by (in the distance!). A bit surreal! Then a stoat ran past.

We decided to walk back exactly the way we came but didn't see anything much at all on the way back other than a couple of rabbits. One downside, the leather strap on my ancient binoculars snapped and will need replacing. Or the bins will!

I'd definitely visit CWP again, but start in a different spot and research my visit in advance!

On the way home we stopped off at the famous Uffington White Horse near Swindon, and walked up the hill to the ancient horse and hill-fort. Although not really there for the birds we did see meadow pipits, skylarks, a linnet and some very close goldfinches, and I nearly got hit on the head by a black kite. Unfortunately, it was made of plastic and shaped like a shark!

edit: having looked at an online map today, I'm fairly sure lake 36 doesn't even exist.