Little Marlow Birding and Tree Felling

A longer than usual walk around the lake turned up many more ducks than usual.  There had clearly been an influx of Tufted Ducks and Shoveler, while there were also good numbers of Pochard, Gadwall, Teal and Wigeon.  A few days previously there were well under 100 Tufted Ducks, while today there were at least 275.

A small portion of the Tufted Duck flock.

Interestingly there about 4000 Gulls with all but a handful being Common and Black-headed Gulls.  I would normally expect a decent number of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, but there were only about 10 in total while I was there.

A small portion of the Lapwings, Ducks and Gulls that were present.

I had a close look at the work to fell the line of Italian Black Poplar trees which stretched along the N side of the lake, between the lake and the public footpath.  Work is almost complete in felling and removing the main tree trunks but a huge amount of smaller branches and scrub has been pushed into long piles to rot.  So at present it does rather look as though a bomb has hit it!

My understanding is that work will start soon to replant with native species of trees.

The north bank of the lake.
The Poplars have been removed leaving only the much smaller trees

View along the "stream" from near the picnic table.

Branches piled in a long line along the permissive path.

View from the footbridge over the "stream" looking east.
Hard to believe this was recently woodland!

View from the footbridge over the "stream" looking west.  
The path running from this bridge to the public footpath currently runs through deep mud where the workmens vehicles have been passing. 

View from the NE corner where the "stream" divides.