So It's Merry Xmas from Mary, and Happy Xmas from Grumpy!

Ooops, sorry about the delay. What with Strictly, SPOTY, and the Apprentice, I got my priorities wrong!

Right, let’s understand one another.   Next Sunday, my usual Post-a-blog day, is Christmas Day – are you seriously expecting me to tear myself away from an hour of Coro and an hour of East Enders to write some uninteresting birding guff. I would only be writing about the bacon, black pudding, mushrooms and tomato full-English breakfast, or the flavour of the Xmas lunch turkey and I couldn’t blame those vegetarian amongst you not wanting to hear this sort of unsavoury (actually, it is savoury!) language. Also having to desert my duties as Cocktail waitress, sorry waiter, barman AND pot man, would be unfair to our guests.

So, sorry and all that but after this diatribe, you will have to wait for the next until you receive the 

New Years’ Day bonanza which I envisage posting on 1^st January 2017 at about 11.00pm.   Which means (and you may have noticed) it gets delivered to your computer at c6.15am. Now that’s a personal start to your day, right? and even if you don’t have your Broad-sheet or Redtop delivered, you do get your Allesbirdtree report to read with the soft boiled and soldiers.

So to end 2016 some newsy snippets.

The Dusky Thrush was certainly the high spot in Derbyshire. Seen near the Dukes Barn at Beeley near Chatsworth, it attracted a huge number of twitchers during its 11 days stay.  I’ve had 3 Xmas cards including the question “Have you seen…etc”..YES I know all about it, and NO I haven’t.

After a good spell, the Thrush decide to hide for 3 days, and the residents of Beeley probably thought life would get back to normal. But it’s been found again, and at 9.30 this morning (Monday). I’m hoping it will still be around at January 1 and I can start 2017 with a Mega. Tell you what, if it is, the Beeley folk will find things busier than the Next sales!

Mary and I have done fund raising for the Derby Royal School for the Deaf, and the previous Duke granted the school the right to use the Barn as an outdoor activity centre for deaf children, so I went there several times. I was very pleased that the £3 parking charge to see the Dusky was going to a good cause.  No doubt the landlord at the Devonshire Arms in the village, was equally pleased with the surge in business!

My Dad was a newspaper journalist and he used to buy the Daily Mail on the way to work, and with his free copy of the Bristol Evening World, we always had newspapers around the house. Now with instant news on TV and the net, so few people seem to have a daily paper. There are 8 houses in our road – we are the only people who put 26 newspapers a fortnight in the blue bin!

But newspapers give us so much information, and you can read and re-read items of interest, so in future I intend to share with you Birding snippets that you may have missed.  Like………..

Have you heard about Wisdom? She is the world’s oldest known seabird, a Laysan albatross, who is expecting another chick… at the age of 66! You can appreciate that there are a few estimates, but Wisdom is said to have been born in 1951, had her id ring replaced 6 times, and flown well over 3 million miles.

Congratulations to Amanda and Christine for achieving their 12 month target of 200 species, for the first time. Amanda crossed the line with a Surf Scoter, followed by a Firecrest at 201, and a Waxwing was Chris’s 200, followed by a Ruddy Duck.

I dropped into Old Moor during the week, and added Red Legged Partridge to take me to 181, the final figure for the year I suspect! 

The Carsington Volunteer Rangers met on Saturday and agreed to proceed with the Janet Ede hide on Stones Island. This project is to be their contribution to the 2017 celebrations for the 25^th anniversary of the opening of Carsington Water.

Talking figures, this blog post you are reading is my 50^th, started in December 2015, and has been hit in 52 weeks 3,477 times. (This total includes UK 2,397; Russia 341 and USA 176.)

Whereas this photo of a Sainsbury bakery counter taken 3 weeks ago, has been “hit” 6,524 times!

Ed: It’s beyond me as to why you would take that picture?..and why would anyone want to look at it?

                                 

So to end the year, Mary and I send our best wishes for a very happy Xmas, and a bird-rich 2017, and we leave you with the Xmas cracker joke of the year…

Two Indian junkies accidentally snorted curry powder instead of cocaine.  Both in hospital... one's in a korma... The other's got a dodgy tikka!

Mary and David

PS: Next Bird walk IS 1^st January 2017 at 10.00am +/- 5 minutes!!

Birdwatching for Beginners - 2016 Annual Review

Being a bit of a conservationist, I thought I could a) save me some work (important conservation!!), and b) save some stationery. I have for the last 4 years written an annual review of the Bird Watching walks for the year, distributed it to regulars and written a different version for the VR’s annual review. This year I will do just this one review, (obviously on my blog), so it can be read by an enormous following!!, with a copy for Peter’s annual report.

Let’s deal with the landmarks and statistics.

On 4^th September, Severn Trent gave a commemorative gift of a nest box and bird guide, to Geoffrey Bartram of Duffield, who was the 2,000^th person to book on the walks in 11 years.  At Geoff’s request, the nest box has been installed on a tree on Stones Island, behind the mini reed bed, near the nest box that was erected to commemorate the 100^th walk in 2014.

2016 has included the 12 monthly walks (and none were aborted in 2016, although March was seriously curtailed, to dry out and buy hot chocolate etc.), plus 2 bonus walks, one in April hoping to see Ospreys, and an evening walk in April led by Carsington Bird Club, hoping (and succeeding) to see Yellow Wagtails. Hence 14 walks.

There is one other trip, on the second Sunday in January, an annual trip to Attenborough Gravel Pits in Nottinghamshire, and is a 3 hour walk for anyone who wants to join me. We usually have 5-8 people on the walk, hoping to see Bitterns and Water Rails. (Ed: 8^th January 2017 9.30am = 3 hours)

Please insert any suggested titles for this picture, on my blog!! The most inspired answer will be published!

On the 14 Carsington walks in 2016, we had 251 bookings, the highest ever total number in the 11 years of this walk, an average of 18 people per walk. A bit different from just 10 people per walk in 2006!

89 different people enjoyed the walks, with Graham Martin attending every one bar the evening Wagtail walk. A further 8 people came 10 times +. We welcomed 64 people who had not been on the walk before, and 13 of them came back for more.. a good endorsement that we are doing things right. (Ed: What about the 51 who didn’t?)

A few bird statistics. In the 11 years we have seen 123 different species, but it was only in December that we added any new ones for 2016; a Little Stint was a sheer joy, and a “lifer” for many, and the huge Great Black Backed Gull was a bird easily missed. This final walk turned out to be the best walk of the year, with Ruff, 18 Dunlin, Redpoll, and Woodpecker making it very difficult to decide what was the bird of the walk.

73 different species for the year was on the low side, but around the average over 11 years of 74pa.

At the end of each walk, we vote on the best bird of the walk, which frequently includes the Diver, but it was very satisfying to see that some good sightings, particularly with the help of the scope-toters (thanks to them), meant that summer migrants such as Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler and Chiffchaff got the vote.

To complete the years’ review, I want to mention the following.

  

      1.         Many of you will know of the sad death of Janet Ede in December 2015. Janet came on the first walk in 2006. She loved the walks and so appreciated the work that the volunteers did, that she bequeathed a significant sum of money to the Volunteers, which they have decided to use (with Severn Trent’s approval) towards the cost of building an additional hide, on Stones Island and near to the outdoor classroom.  2017 is the Silver Jubilee of the Queen opening Carsington Water, and this new hide will be the Volunteers contribution to this memorable year.

2.        Regulars will be aware that I had major surgery in May, and whilst I do not wish to dwell on that, I wish to thank my volunteer colleagues for their help in ensuring that the walks have continued uninterrupted. My blog was, but the walks weren’t!!  Thanks to Keith, Amanda and Gary. And thank you too, for the many good wishes messages and enquiries my wife and I received. The first 3 months were pretty hard, but the quiet support helped immensely.

During the year, I have collected £125 in donations from birders on the walk, towards our costs for maintaining and enhancing the facilities to see, amongst other birds, the passing Ospreys. Graham Martin very generously added £100 to these donations, all of which will be immensely useful for completing the new hide, and our ongoing projects.

And finally the next walk will be a booze-free morning on 1^st January 2017, 10.00am +/- 5 minutes!!

Anyny photos from the walks, or of Carsington that I can use in my blog would are always welcome.

I hope you all have a very happy Xmas, and I wish you happy birding for 2017, with continuing expansion of your knowledge about our wonderful bird friends.

David

A late Little Stint - and a thrill for the Beginners!!

Tuesday 29th November 2016, and having aborted a visit to Shipley Park last week, this week, John, Chris and I joined forces in the Ramblers café in Shipley Park for a hot chocolate before setting off for what turned out to be a 4 miles walk round the park. This distance, based on Chris’s step counter, seemed high so we spent a while analysing whether half a mile had been clocked up due to us constantly stamping our feet due to the cold!

An early test of our knowledge was debating whether we were looking at a Redpoll or what. Not much sign of any red feathers, but we still agreed on a Redpoll. A Jay helped the sighting list, plus a number of Redwings.

Mapperley Reservoir had very few birds, but I always enjoy watching Shovellers going round in circles with their  heads under the water. When the ducks go round and round in these circles, they are taking advantage of their buddy in front whose paddling feet are stirring up the little invertebrates and plants from the water. The following duck, head down, just eats, letting the lead duck do the work and so on, around the circle.

Despite being a weekday, Denby Lodge was actually open for refreshments, but it was so crowded we decided to head on to the main centre for our lunch. Osborne pond added some more ducks, a Great Crested Grebe, and a handsome male Mandarin Duck. What has to be described as quite smart, was a young Muscovy Duck with nice clean black and white markings.  

A total of only 22 species, but a pleasant walk, in a good mixed environment.

Sunday 4^th December.

Well, to-day WAS a surprise day. My readers will know that being the first Sunday in the month, it is Bird Watching for Beginners walk day, and to-day 19 people (including 3 newbie birders) decided to join the walk. I managed to get the latest sighting news from one of the regular birders from Carsington Bird Club, so I knew we had the potential for something interesting. They weren’t wrong!

The night before I had been drafting my annual report for these walks, and I was feeling a bit disappointed that 2016 had not shown up much of interest, or at least nothing different. And on top of that, December 4^th and still no sign of the GN Diver.

So it was an early fillip as we reached the causeway to see 18 Dunlin wheeling around over the water, and then settling on the water’s edge. And then with steady telescopes, a Little Stint was identified on watersports Island.   

Now we were smoking!!  Still not having moved on, the new birders were asking how we knew that under the tail and bottom sticking in the air, were a pair of Shelduck…. So it was out with the bird guide. And a quick lesson.

Meanwhile Gary was homing in on a 2/3-year-old Great Black Backed Gull near the watersports pontoon. Talk was already on “What will be the bird of the day?”, so we quietly moved on to the burial mound area, hoping to see a reported Cetti warbler, a rarity for Carsington. Alan G thought he saw one diving into a bush, but we were all homing in on a Ruff on the edge of the water.

Even when we moved on we were still getting some nice additions.  3 or 4 of us saw a Redpoll in the shrubs near the proposed site for the new bird hide. (Unlike the Redpoll above at Shipley, the pink forehead was very clear). Circling the Stones, we picked up a Great Spotted Woodpecker, plus a Song Thrush. Sadly neither Redwing or Fieldfare were in evidence, although the reports were that 

Redwings were in their hundreds in the Sheepwash area.

So the walk gave a cracking count and highest for the year, of 41 species, 7 of which were new for 2016 and 2 “lifers” to add to the 11-year list, now on 123.

A Great way to end the Bird walk year. Me?  I added Little Stint nicely taking me on to 3 in a bed.  And I can now add some good news to my annual review.

(Ed: 3 in a bed....?   One hundred and eighty.)