Osprey at Carsington Water - I WAS THERE!!! (3 hours later!!)

Some weeks I sit at my laptop late on Sunday with a blank sheet, and think “what the *** am I going to write about in my blog this week?”     Yes this was another of those weeks, and I console myself with the thoughts that the Summer arrivals are not far away, indeed some of them are already here.

Oh, here is a nice issue to consider.

The Daily Telegraph accused The People (newspaper) of overestimating the number of Remain campaigners, in stating that 1 million people were on the Brexit walk. The Telegraph said it should be “hundreds of thousands”.      

Consider the Telegraph quote, “ a hundred thousand?” – quite clear and concise - one; “ a couple of thousand?” – Ok, that’s 2 thousand. But hundreds of thousands?... seems to me like 300K or even 400k.

But without wishing to glorify the protest walk, my point is that on 31^st March 1990 there erupted London’s worst riots for 100 years………..  with 100,000 rioters.      Ooops. Looks like the Remainers are in the history books, if nothing else, for being the largest riot with 200,000+ people.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,…. voting rumbled on and on and on all week, until Saturday………. I turned off the radio and went birding!!!!!   Just one brief respite in the week… Thursday evening Mary and I went for a nice meal to celebrate 55 years of marriage.  Ed: A reward for long service.

Saturday 30^th March

I thought I would go hunting early migrants, and as Attenborough is normally a good location, that was my destination.  I knew it was a bit early for some of the warblers, but I though I would give it a shot.  Sand Martins, Blackcap and Chiffchaff were mentioned on the sightings board, although in small numbers.

Picked up Chiffchaff, not surprising, Cetti heard but not seen, but the only other nice sighting was the Kestrel sitting in the doorway of the Owl box behind the Tower hide, where he would appear to have usurped the residence of an owl over the last 2/3 years.

Some Goldeneyes were still lingering, and I did hear Blackcap near the Trent. But as you know, I am a bird watcher, not a listener so despite the enjoyment the heard birds do not feature in my records or year count.

Sunday 31st March

A family lunch was planned for Sunday, giving me time for an am run to Carsington Water.

Cold as always, I strolled across the causeway to extreme of Horseshoe island ticking off Chiffchaff, a low level hi-speed Wren and a pair of Reed Buntings. I was particularly pleased to see that around the small reed bed on the right, there are 4 nesting boxes. Each of these recognise a significant stage in the evolution of the Bird Watching for Beginners walks, the latest 2 additions being for the 1,000^th  (different-) person to attend the walk, and the other for 2,500^th booking. Some milestones, eh?

As I clutched a warming Capuccino Rangers Donna and Mike took great delight in telling me that at 7am this morning, the first Osprey of 2019 arrived, caught a fish, and after a 7.30am breakfast left Fishtail Creek on a Westerly course.     31st March … not the earliest ever for Carsington (20^th March 2017) but always great to have the first Osprey in March.

The volunteer team in the Wildlife had heard the news, as Simon Rodd the Bird Club expert who first spotted the Osprey, had spread the word. They took equal delight in pointing out a loan Avocet patrolling up and down along Horseshoe Island, a joy for a lot of visitors to see through the available binoculars and telescopes.

Well, that’s about it for this week. Chris and I are off to Frampton Marsh on Tuesday, so weather and visibility permitting maybe my YTD might de-stagnate and start moving!!

Happy Birding

Tuesday March 14 - March! - an early Osprey return for Rutland

Now that’s a lot better!!!!  Seven, yes 7 additions to my year list in just one week, and only one migrant in that 7.  

The migrant was a Chiffchaff on Tuesday at Rutland Water, although for all I know he could have spent winter here.. they are no longer a reliable sign of a spring arrival as some now winter in the UK. Whereas the descending song of the Willow Warbler WILL always be a sign of Spring.

Chris and I had a nice day at Rutland on Tuesday March 19 and having brilliant views of 3 White Nuns and 4 females (Smew, of course), it needed an off-site visit to Manton Bay to see Maya sitting on a branch near the Osprey nest. Maya had returned the previous Thursday (14^th March) a good early return for a Rutland Osprey, and 6K, another female Osprey returned (after 4 years absence) a few days later.  Yet again keeping records and data is so beneficial to be able to write about these birds in so much detail, and as I have said many times, it brings birding alive.

It was only because of the Osprey history and the background, that Maya qualified as BOD. In any other circumstances, the White Nuns would have romped home as the top sighting.

Jumping forward to Friday March 22^nd, a noteworthy day – not only did I go for a high-tide spectacular on the Wirral, but Mary came too. Nice to have company, and a navigator when I got lost near Heston. But with her help, we were on the cold sea wall at Parkgate by 10.50, with a couple of hundred other birders, and in time to watch the high tide at 12.00 noon.

An early tick was a Skylark, in fact quite a few took off as the water level built up, and the continuous tide rise revealed a goodly number of Pink Footed Geese. Then with the Egrets getting out of their depth and driven closer to the car park beyond the Boathouse one Great White Egret was very obvious alongside it’s small relatives.

But you could hear and feel the buzz when a Short-Eared Owl came South over the marshes, and after a brief survey of the wetland, settled down on a dry patch about 20 yards in front of us. He meandered around a couple of times, giving excellent views, especially to the many camera-toters.

Seeking for something warm nearby, we found The Wheatsheaf at Puddington, a PH with an unusual menu.  The offer was to buy a starter or a pudding and get the main course for free!!! A new scheme on us, but we escaped after both having 2 courses, a soft drink apiece and £4 change out of a £20 note. Had there not been a local power failure, the PH would not have been so busy with loads of locals having to eat out… ergo we would have not taken so long. But as a good value venue I would go back there.  

Back pedaling to Wednesday morning, just happened to look out of my study at the bird life in the garden and spotted 2 pairs of Dunnocks clearly demonstrating that it was THAT time of the year. I have never been able to tell which is male and which is female, so I don’t know who was orchestrating the passionate display.  Thank goodness they know.   Meanwhile, a very impassive female Blackbird was in the middle of the hiatus watching the action.

Thursday a welcome surprise as I walked back from my pm library duty at Allestree. I was in an urban housing area when out of a gateway walked a Red Legged partridge. I stopped, he stopped, then he walked back towards me, before hopping over a low wall into a garden, and then sat on another wall and proceeded to scold me at length. Long enough for me to video him and record his strong views about me, the weather and Brexit. Whatever, he’s another statistic.  

 

Saturday 23^rd March,  I visited Willington Gravel Pits to see what was around, and if any further migrants had arrived.

A couple of Buzzards were circling each other when I arrived, and from the concrete blocks at the start of the reserve, I picked up a Great White Egret standing erect in the middle of a field.    Chiffchaffs were in good song along the path, a Dunlin was evident on dead bird island, and a Kingfisher flashed down the stream near the car park as I was leaving.  

35 species, not bad for a short walk.

FYI YTD 119.

Also FYI, tomorrow is the 142nd anniversary of 1877 the only year when the Oxford and Cambridge boat race finished in a dead heat!!

Happy Birding

Wow!!! 133 (Legs not birds!!)

I don’t know if there was a hiccup in sending my blog last Sunday. Mary told me she did not get her automated copy, so it is possible there is summut oop!

It was entitled “2 renovated properties with vacant possession…….”   so if you did not get it, and want to read it, just go into my blog and catch up.  (Pity – I thought it was a good one, and it did include an apology… maybe that’s why!!)

I have been diplomatically reminded that I told the truth, but not the whole truth, about our sightings of the Great Grey Shrike last month, at Clumber Park.  So, as I want to sleep with a clear conscience, this is the full (and amended) version.

"We had almost reached the recommended viewing point/bench in the GGS area, when Chris suddenly adopted a pointer dog mode, having spotted a white dot on the top of a bush 50-60 yards ahead. Brilliant!  After a few minutes viewing, the Shrike flew further on and we followed it as far as the bench.

When we stopped, I opened my mobile phone to check the Shrike on my birding app and also to hear what the call would be like.    My hearing is not that good and even if it did call, unless it was up to  the volume of a Corvid, I would be unlikely to hear it. 

As we sat scanning for the bird, another scope toter joined us and asked if we had seen the Shrike. We told him where it was, and he said he knew it was beyond us because he heard it call. We thought it went in a different direction from what he said, but we did not argue.

After another 15 minutes continuously looking by all 3 of us in the direction we had seen it fly, I turned to come back, and immediately saw the Shrike sitting prominently on a spindly tree behind us!!!, even closer than it was before.

But it was only after this chap left us, did it dawn on me that the chap had rushed up the path towards us because he had heard my birding app, not the bird. Guilty as charged – Chris is still laughing about it."

Suitably humbled, I’m afraid the news this week is that there is no news.   I have done no birding, 

and whilst I went to Carsington on Sunday 17^th March, I have nothing to add bird-wise.  Mary and I are a bit pre-occupied at the moment, so all I can do is conclude this week’s news with a bit of micro-tibialist news!

First one, spotted on e-bay and £8 later now in my collection, a plastic toothbrush!  It did come with the box, so like antique Dinky Toys maybe that makes it worth double.

 The second one was a kind contribution from Amanda, bought whilst she and her husband were bargain hunting, sorry, bird hunting in Norfolk.  An iron door knocker with a great leg shaped strike… most unusual and a great addition to the collection. As visitors to my house are prone to knock the front door, ignoring the obvious bell, perhaps I should fix it to the front door.

I have high hopes that I will get out to 3 birding locations next week, so I should have some bird news for you.

Happy Birding.

2 Renovated properties with vacant possession - Carsington Area. Summer let available.

I’ve had a bit of a conscience this week, following a chat with a birding friend last week.

I had noticed that for want of a better description, he seemed to have gone off the boil bird-wise. He told me, this was back in September time last year, that he was not sure whether he would keep birding as he was finding it too much pressure. At the time I tried to give him some encouragement, and he said he was OK but he wanted to get his own plans sorted.

When I spoke to him last weekend, and asked if he was back to his old self, he told me he was, and he knew what the problem was. He had got himself in the frame of mind that getting more bird ticks was paramount, and as his numbers were increasing at too slow a rate he had become discouraged and disheartened.

And this is where I came in. If you are a follower of my blog, you will know that I regularly tell you how my bird count is going, and what the birding of each week has done to increase my YTD count.  You will also know that I quote progress for several others, and I am beginning to feel that, in at least my friends case, I have been having a subliminal effect on his bird thinking. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I can do something about it. And I will. 

Apart from the rare and special occasions YTD’s will disappear from my blog for other people. I have no desire to bring pressure, and as another friend put it (even as she wrote down her sightings throughout the day!!!) birding should just be enjoying, in other words, how MUCH you enjoy your birding and not how MANY!!

To cheerier matters!   As you will know from last week, the DWT has been doing some makeovers at Carsington on two (so far) of the Osprey nests. And they’ve kindly sent me some photographs that DWT people took.

Rebuilding a nest

Reassembling the Oak tree nest at Fishtail Creek

The renovated nest at Lane End.

Thanks to the DWT... thank goodness it was not me doing the climbing!!

Last Tuesday 5^th March it happened again!!    I got to Rufford Country park at 8.32am (left home at 7.25) to meet Christine, and be told…”Missed!”  Before I got there she saw one Hawfinch in a fellow birders scope, and he had seen 4 before she arrived. A’int it always the way.   I think I will have to try an early run to Cromford – at least I can get there in 25 minutes, and I don’t have to battle with the traffic like the A38.

Anyway, armed with a take-away coffee, we sauntered (and I do mean sauntered) round the Rufford lake and through the woods. Here’s the first evidence. Greeted by a nice male Mandarin Duck, cohabiting with Mallards.   Then we heard AND spotted a Song Thrush. Last year I saw one on January 1.. this year it took 66 days!!

A nice male Mandarin Duck in Rufford Park.

Around the ice-house used to be a good spot for Marsh Tits, and I went prepared with a bag full of seed to put on the stumps of felled trees, only to find that most of the stumps had gone, and there was only a narrow fence rail to drop seed. Pity, but we know we will see Marsh Tits at Rutland, and that is on our forthcoming itinerary.

I don’t know the north of Nottingham well, so after Rufford, Chris led the way to Clumber Park and the visitor centre  with a couple of target birds in mind. I have heard many times that the Chapel area is good for Hawfinches, but not for us nor other birders today. But other scope-toters gave us the location of the Great Grey Shrike, on the south lawn the other side of the lake. Without having brought my water waders, this meant a short yomp was in prospect, convincing us that an excellent soup was the priority to reinvigorate the muscles.

We had almost reached the recommended viewing point/bench in the GGS area, when Chris suddenly adopted a pointer dog mode, having spotted a white dot on the top of a bush 50-60 yards ahead. Brilliant!  After a few minutes viewing the Shrike flew on, and we walked to the said bench. After another 15 minutes, and continuously looking with another birder, in the direction it flew, I turned to come back, and immediately saw the Shrike sitting prominently on a spindly tree behind us!!!, even closer than it was before.

And as a bonus, walking back to the visitor centre, in an area called the Grotto, looking over the bridge at a shallow wet weir….. a lovely Grey Wagtail…non-stop moving and the diagnostic long quivering tail.

£4.50 to enter the park as a non-member… at £2.25 per good bird, worth every penny! (or should it be £3 for the Shrike and £1.50 for the Grey Wag??)

QI: 10^th March 1831, the French Foreign Legion was founded!

Finally my bird hide comment. They won’t like me saying it, it’s a bit like treason, but I can’t open the windows in the new Janet Ede hide at Carsington, as I only have 2 arms. You need 3, 1 each side to hold the catches up, and one in the middle to push up the window.    Solution?  Take away one side catch… the catches are strong, and one would be enough to hold the window open.  Last time I was in there, I had the window resting on my head!!

The migrants are coming…. let’s hope the  Carsington osprey nests make-overs pays dividends….as we always said, if a pair did “unite”, then our problems would really start.   So bring on the problem!!

Happy Birding.

The early birder catches the early bird.. the earliest ever SAND MARTIN at Carsington... March 3rd 2019!!

Sunday March 3…. Welcome to World Wildlife Day

Wednesday afternoon,  and I’m not ‘appy and I’m getting cross.   

I’ve spent a long time trying to connect a new light to the wall by the front door, aggravated by trying to connect a typically thick power cable, to a footling little wire in the replacement unit. The connection block (what I used to call a chocolate box) broke and I lost a screw. Then when I got the replacement block and fixed it up, my stock of light bulbs is all bayonet.   Guess what, the new unit is screw. Back to Wilkos!!

6 people in the queue… 7 tills I cashier, and there are no fast cash payers...the cashier rings the bell for assistance, but clearly there are only deaf staff on duty.    FINALLY…...I’m in the roof top car park, start the car engine and…………………… what the hell was that?????? Flying right, straight across my eye line, one…. and then another…  2 Ring Necked Parakeets. ….about say 300 yards away

Which means, fortunately for Mary, that my blood pressure was back to normal by the time I get home!!

I had seen Parakeets nesting in Allestree Park last year and there have been further reports already in 2019.     At least this year I will not have to wait until my annual visit to Surrey to the Leatherhead Cemetery to tick them off my year list.

Also, on Tuesday, I booked a few days away in late spring at The Haven Hotel at the entrance to Poole harbour in Dorset. Towards the end of our stay, I’m booked on yet another of my favourite birding transport methods… by boat!!   

The cruise this time is a new venue for me, round Poole Harbour, Brownsea Island and up the estuary to Wareham.  I remember in 1952 (Ed; Why that year? It was the year of the Lynmouth flood disaster), going on an enjoyable and memorable (Obviously!) boat trip from Studland (Shell Bay) all the way to Wareham, but feathered birds had not been invented then, well not be me!!

I hope to get news whilst I’m in Poole on the ambitious Osprey project in the Harbour which started in 2018.

And the cruise booking went wrong!  ! found the web site, found the trip, found the vacancies, booked a place. £10 very good value for 3hrs+.   Wrong!! I’d booked a child ticket. I considered whether I could blag it when we boarded but decided that arguing on the edge of the quay side in the proximity of the harbour would be unwise, so a humbling apologetic e-mail solved the problem, with an extra £6 cheque in the post.

Just going back a tad, on Tuesday we got some excellent service from a local picture framing business in Darley Abbey, who reframed a water colour picture of Irongate and the Cathedral. Martyn told us to come back in 20 minutes and it would be done. 

You will recall how exceptional the weather was on Tuesday, so we decided to stroll to the cafe in Darley Park and sit outside with a couple of cups of Horniman’s Ed: Not Tetleys? …………… and……. watch 2 x Sparrowhawks circling over the A6!!  

So that’s YTD = 108.   Isn’t it amazing how calming and therapeutic it is to have a birding experience when you don’t expect it?

Last week I started a grumble about Hides. As I went there last week, I’ll start with the Holden Tower at Slimbridge, and to a degree some of the other older hides there. Being short of stature, in most cases I find I’ve really got to hike myself up on their high stools. And then when I am there, I cannot fix my scope clamp to the shelf such that I can look down in the viewfinder!!     OK, I know it’s partly me, but I do see others struggling. I went through my personal mistake in the past, of buying a scope with a straight lens, and changed to an angled scope. With angled, you should be able to stand behind the scope, get a rough view of what you want to home in on, and then just drop your head to the scope eyepiece.

What I have to do in the Holden Tower, is loosen the scope barrel, and twist the body so that I then look sideways into the scope.   (Hope you understand this… it’s clear to me!!). This is all because the window is so high above the hide floor, and in the case of the Holden, with an added floor layer to step up.

Getting down, I have more than once lost my step because in what is a dark place, I misjudged the distance to step down.

I notice a couple of the hides are now closed (in the Zeiss area), so perhaps it is time for a bit of modernisation in the bird watching area. We are the paying customers and as I commented last week, Slimbridge (WWT) is a tad on the high side.

Food for thought, I hope.

Called in at Carsington this morning and found that Amanda in anticipation that the weather was predicted to be rough, had moved the BwB walk to the Sheepwash area. Quite productive with 42 species thanks no doubt due to 4/5 leaders.

I was pleased to hear that the DWT have been in this week and given two of the Osprey nests a make-over, both in the same day. The most natural one, the old oak at Fishtail Creek, and the most popular one at Lane End. Keep watching!!

And talking of keeping watch, Simon Roddis was cock-a-hoop having seen a Sand Martin this morning flying through. 3^rd March!!!, 8 days better than the previous record for Carsington.

Oh, by the way, when I screwed the replacement bulb in………… the bl***Y light didn’t work!

Happy Birding.