142.85 YTD.

“It’s been a funny old week.” Starting off with 140 year to date, things seemed to drift around, but culminated in a high end to the week.... hold on, don’t get too excited!!

Sunday 20^th March and another trip for family reasons to Surrey. All 3 passengers well asleep, so they miss the 3 Red Kites circling above the junction of the M1 and the magic roundabout (M25). 

These aerobatic beauties seem to spreading their wings (sorry!) and their territory further from the Chilterns. My sightings used to be confined to the M40 from Stokenchurch to Oxford, but now the M25 from Junction 16-20 is a further area to see them.

Tuesday, Chris and I had a morning constitutional around Attenborough gravel pits, in the hope of seeing Green and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (failed), but we did come across a nice group of male and female Red Crested Pochards. 

Being diving ducks, they are worth watching particularly the males when they dive for food. I first noticed them in the pens at Slimbridge – compacting the feathers on their head, then when they surface the feathers open up. So logical that this stops their head feathers getting waterlogged.

Wednesday, With a couple of hours to spare, I poodled down (again!) to Loscoe Dam to try and spot a Green Woodpecker. Even as I arrived I heard the yaffle, so the odds were good. After about 5 minutes, I saw what I was 85% sure was the Woodpecker circle round the water. Sadly the poor visibility precluded me from being 100% sure, so my year count will now include just 85% !!

If you don’t live in Derby, you may not have heard about the Peregrine (030)borne at the Derby cathedral in 2015, which has turned up at Rutland Water and decided to make herself feel at home on an Osprey nest at the Egleton Reserve.

She doesn’t know it, but her chosen nest is the summer residence of Blue 51, currently either on vacation in Senegal, or on her way back to her nest for the summer. I await news of the meeting of 51 v 030. No doubt the Rutland observers will be closely monitoring developments.

Friday  ANOTHER trip to Surrey, but it was rewarded by another Red Kite on the M25, and then a Ring Necked Parakeet as I was loading the car in Putney.  It’s such a distinctive high pitched call that they make as they fly, that you can’t mistake them.

FANFARE........................   It’s Sunday March 27^th, and I’m at Carsington Water on duty for the morning. A cold but busy morning, busy I suspect because there is another of the independent fun raising sponsored walks that go the full 8 miles round the reservoir. So when I enter the wildlife centre, at first sight the 3 volunteers are lost in the melee.

But within 2 minutes I find myself thinking “one Swallow does not a summer make”, as I see my first Swallow of the year, circling over the water in front of the centre..... and almost immediately afterwards a second Swallow. So is the sequel... “but two swallows doth.”

Add to this good news, I am told by volunteer Pat (with Amanda and Mike) that 3 Sand Martins were seen shortly before I arrived, AND they did a fly past in front of MY newly painted Sand Martin bank. So Pat is off to find her Sand Martin sightings chart which she puts on a wall for the public to see how the Sand Martin migration is progressing and we now wait and pray that squatters will move in.

A strange week, 140, plus the RC Pochard, Swallow and 85% Green Pecker  = 142.85 YTD!!

High 5......Goshawks!

13 – 18^th March.  Well after that wonderful flurry of activity last week, with birds coming in threes, there was only ever going to be one outcome.... a period of calm and quiet contemplation, or put it another way, boredom, depression and birding withdrawl symptoms.

Well, there were some good things. 2 appointments at the Derby Royal hospital enabled me to completely relax and catch up on two months of reading unread Bird Watching Magazines, following which I was able to sale through the blood pressure tests. Mark you, on the first test, the machine didn’t work, and the nurse said I must be dead; she said she would try it on herself to confirm it worked, as she was alive...it did, and I wasn’t!

Coming home on the bus on Friday, the 2 Derby Peregrines were sitting on the Jury Inn sign, overlooking the nest box, so that augers well for 2016.

Saturday 19^th March.   A high to end the week.   Chris and I decided to join 16 other birders on the DOS walk to the Upper Derwent Valley to look for Goshawks. Whilst not as cold as last year, these deep reservoirs are always windy, but the light was great and we duly walked up to the Derwent dam wall for our first scanning of the skyline.

A single Red Grouse on the skyline was spotted very quickly, and then to the delight of the leader Andrew a single Goshawk was spotted. Only my second ever Goshawk, the first on 12^th March 2007, also on a DOS walk.

From there we drove to the far end at Kings Corner and walked to Slippery Stones. No Crossbills sadly, but everyone was thrilled to see 4 more Goshawks, 2 of which looked like juveniles, quite close together. So that produced the High 5!

That was the key bird we had come for, and, despite enduring the enjoyment of Windy Corner on the way back, purely for the record, our total list was Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Peregrine, Canada Goose (thrill!!), Buzzard, Cormorant and Mallard. I parted company from the group on the way back, and found a Grey Wagtail at the Howden dam wall, thereby helping my 2016 list to move on to 140.

  

 

 

Just in case you wanted to know (he said modestly), when I was setting up this blog last year, it took a while to produce a page heading that looked eye-catching and in conjunction with my computer adviser Julian, we produced the picture of an Arctic Tern which heads up my blog page.

The picture from which it was produced was taken in June 2007 during a trip to the Farnes, and anyone who has done this fabulous trip will not only have savoured close-ups of Puffins, Shags, Guillemots and seals, but will, if you have landed, know what it is like to be welcomed by the breeding Arctic Terns.

 

 Experienced visitors know what to expect, evidenced by the different styles of skull protection worn, and which range from motor cycle helmets, building site hard hats, to brollies. What is forbidden – obviously - is the egits who wave their coats so stave off the birds, a practice which can badly damage the birds. After all we are the visitors on their patch ... they don’t nest on OUR side of the ropes.

In my opinion a trip to the Farnes should be on every birders bucketlist!

Word has it that Ospreys, Sand Martins are other summer visitors have crossed the channel, so the next couple of weeks should be good birding weeks. We’ll see.

OMG3GND+3SEO

Sunday 6^th March. Ok, so there was some snow flurries at Carsington, so 6 people decided that home is more attractive than the journey to Carsington for my March Beginners bird walk, especially if they were coming from Staffs.     

Probably true, but a sad decision because those that did make the trip saw 3 Great Northern Divers, including 2 seen from the end of Stones Island drifting north in formation. They were that close if one had flapped its wings it would have hit the other. Marvellous, and no one had a camera. 

Anyway, 36 was good count for a cold day. (That explains the 3GND!)

Monday 7^th... The web had reported that a Sand Martin had been seen in Gloucester, which spurred me into some painting action.

The Sand Martin bank built by the volunteers has seen only one visiting pair in 4 years, and I suggested that painting the bank sand colour might be more attractive than grey breeze blocks. As all else had failed we decided to go ahead with the idea, and I volunteered to do the painting. So armed with a large tin of Masonry paint and some nice weather, I duly spent Monday doing a make-over.  Mind you, I was not encouraged by the full-time Ranger who said a nice flock wallpaper with Sand Martin pattern would have been better!

Tuesday 8^th  Together with Chris and Tony, we set off for a day at Slimbridge. Did the obligatory search for the Penduline Tit site at Gloucester, and missed again – for the 3^rd time!  Mind, you we did see a Chiffchaff, so all was not lost.

44 birds at Slimbridge was rewarding, and although none new for my 2016 list, it was great to see a pair of Cranes, and then shortly after 3 more...5 in one day, in the wild... not bad.

Wednesday 9^th  Did another of my Osprey talks this time to a church group in Duffield, and despite the small number in the audience it generated a good number of questions. Everyone empathises with Ospreys!

Friday 11^th March  As far as I can recall this had to be the best birding day so far for 2016. Chris, John and I headed off to Parkside on the Wirral for an exceptional high spring tide. With hi-tide at c1.00pm, we and a couple of hundred other birders were ready from noon for the progressively rising tide, and to see what was flushed out to provide lunch for the raptors. And we were not disappointed. On arrival, everyone was pointing to a Great White Egret, close to a good number of Little Egrets, so ideal for comparing size.  

   The warm sun produced soaring Skylarks galore, and I spotted a cute Stonechat sitting on a reed bush.

But the raptor parade was what everyone wanted. First a Hen Harrier arrived (with a second bird later) and spent it’s time patrolling up and down the reeds, with the occasional drop for clearly a successful meal. Then the first of 3 Short Eared Owls. One sat on the marsh, with the Hen harrier passing right above...oh for a camera - again! (That’s the 3SEO!)

Third raptor was a speedy Merlin, which I picked up right out on the water’s edge and a Buzzard loafed around over the adjacent park.

Brilliant day – warm, satisfying, good birding camaraderie, and 5 additions to my 2016 list, making 138 to date...that’s the highest ever for 11^th March, so the year progresses well!!