{"id":7492,"date":"2025-12-14T10:44:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T10:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/?p=7492"},"modified":"2026-05-05T10:17:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:17:29","slug":"hosehill-lake-14th-december-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/hosehill-lake-14th-december-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Hosehill Lake – 14th December 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the morning of Sunday 14 December, Peter Driver led a walk round Hosehill Lake near Theale, looking at winter birds. Meeting place was the car park of the Fox and Hounds pub. Hosehill Lake is a 24-hectare site managed by BBOWT. The reserve is based around the only one of the former gravel pits south of the Kennet at Theale with the status of a local nature reserve. The lake is edged by a few small reedbeds, with woodland and meadow adding to the variety of habitats which support a wide range of flora and fauna. Regular work parties are organised by Theale Area Bird Conservation Group, on Saturday mornings, to carry out habitat management and general maintenance tasks. Twelve members met in the car park of the Fox and Hounds on a bright, dry winter morning. A Song Thrush was singing nearby and a Red Kite drifted low over the car park as we crossed the road to enter the reserve. The path here forms part of the Camino Ingles to Santiago, or St James’ Way pilgrimage route connecting Reading Abbey to Southampton. From the viewing screen on the north side of the lake, we saw many waterbirds afloat or along the edges of the island opposite the screen. The low sunlight rendered the birds to our east as silhouettes but we identified many Coot, Mallard and Tufted Duck,
with smaller numbers of Teal, Gadwall, Shoveler, Pochard, Great Crested Grebe and Egyptian Goose. Most of the wildfowl were winter visitors. They breed as far away as Fennoscandia, Eastern Europe and Russia but migrate to the UK for our milder winters, joining the few resident Mallards and geese. Harry found a splendid drake Red-crested Pochard, tucked away behind the island. Although its scarlet bill wasn’t really visible at 300 metres, we could see its distinctive ‘coiffed’ golden cap and large white side-patch. We followed the path clockwise around the lake. Two Chiffchaffs were high in a tree top, their yellow-green hues glowing in the sunshine. Chiffchaff used to be a summer visiting species but with climate change, we are seeing increasing numbers of Chiffchaff and Blackcap wintering in the UK. A few other passerines were flitting about in the trees and understory: Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, Blackbird, Wren and Robin. On reaching the lawn at the eastern end of the lake, we had a better view onto the water with the sun behind us. A Little Grebe was among the closest birds to us on the water, diving busily among the Coots and a large group of some 200 Tufted Ducks. Pairs and small groups of Shoveler were whirling round on the water, using this distinctive feeding strategy to create a vortex, drawing sediment and food to the surface to be filtered through their massive bills. A young Mute Swan in its grey first winter plumage was the largest bird on the reserve. Grey Herons and Cormorants kept vigil at the edges. A flock of seventeen Lapwings drifted over the island, their distinctive broad wings and erratic flight pattern making them unmistakable even at some distance. Further round the path there are fewer views onto the lake and the habitat is more wooded. A Goldcrest sang but proved elusive to all but the most determined viewers. A Siskin flew off from the bird-feeding station, which had just been restocked by a local volunteer. The Blue and Great Tits on the feeders were joined by a Chaffinch and, very briefly, a Marsh Tit, which announced its arrival with a ‘pitchu’ call above our heads. One of our group spotted a Redwing in a tree along the path. Along the western side of the lake several mature oaks held Nuthatch and Treecreeper, which showed well. A mixed feeding flock of Long-tailed Tits with other small passerines fed noisily in the willows. A Goldcrest was feeding in hawthorn at knee-height, giving very good views to members at the front of the party. After one final look across the lake to check a group of Black-headed Gulls for any unusual species (to no avail) we made our way back to the pub. Several members watched a Kestrel pass overhead while they changed out of their muddy boots. Between us we had observed 43 bird species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Black-headed gulls – photo by Fiona Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Great Crested Grebe – photo by Fiona Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pochard – photo by Fiona Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Treecreeper – photo by Fiona Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the morning of Sunday 14 December, Peter Driver led a walk round Hosehill Lake near Theale, looking at winter birds. Meeting place was the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[68,49],"class_list":["post-7492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-field-trip-reports","tag-hosehill-lake","tag-wildlife-walk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7492"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7567,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7492\/revisions\/7567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}