Coate Country Water Park

Coate Country Water Park Coate Water lies to the southeast of Swindon, not far from the M4, which is very audible from its large central reservoir. It took about one and a half hours for me to do a complete circuit on this, my first but not last visit. I took a great deal of pictures, but had unknowingly done my no-card-in-the-camera trick once again and so was left with the dozen or so I'd taken on the other camera, with the 17-70 mm lens.

It is a good place for birds and on the way round I saw a variety of ducks and mute swans. I also saw three cormorants in flight and two fishing on the lake, and tried to get close enough for my first close-up of a cormorant, but as I approached it, it dived underwater and emerged far, far away. I also saw a grey heron fly past near to its heronry. There were bird feeders and nesting boxes dotted around and so I witnessed blue tits, robins and finches at close proximity. A man was putting food on the bird tables and throwing it to birds on the lake, which luckily I captured on the camera with a card in it.

I also saw an egret that was double the size of the little egret I'd seen near Slimbridge the day before. It had a large yellow bill and black legs and I later discovered it to have been a great white egret. These are rarely seen in the UK but one had been seen at Coate exactly one year before, and on a few occasions since during the year there.

It was fortunate that I went there on this day as overnight storms left the road I had travelled to get there and back between Avebury and Wroughton badly flooded.

Coate Water Park gets its name from the reservoir that was originally built there to provide water for the Wilts and Berks Canal, and so fits into my Wilts and Berks series.

L.
28.12.2013

Blip #1130
Consecutive Blip #009
Day #1366

Alternatives:
Lakeside Tree
Lake With Swan
Swans Hoping For Food

Coate Water Park, 20 December 2013 (Flickr set)

Lens: 17-70 mm

Coate Water Park (Wiki page)

Wilts and Berks Canal series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Walk on the Water (1968)

One year ago: Good Golly! (Treasure Trove #11)