Spring? Winter nest and feeder cleaning time

Tuesday November 28^th. Suffering from withdrawal symptoms, Chris and I decided to have a spell at Attenborough GP, and in a very relaxed mood, met for coffee at 10.00am.

It was cold and quiet, but the light was good, albeit that the sun was very low so the South East view from the Tower hide was straight into the sun. Using a bit of strategy we decided to try the North East facing Kingfisher hide first.

A Bittern would have been nice but no such luck, but we did pick up the Black Necked Grebe, which had been at Attenborough for 3 weeks. Be nice if it is still there on Jan 1. Goldeneye are back, both female and male, and we amassed a respectable total of 40 species. No waders, but we saw one Kestrel, and a hungry Robin who did not know I had left the bird seed in the car.

 Walking towards the river, just before the barrier, there is a private access road to the right to some old waterside homes and I regularly check the area by the bridge. A stream runs through a good area of unmaintained trees and bushes which, now that leaves have fallen, are good for Passerines. Just as we reached the gate before the bridge, a Kingfisher flew through, stopping briefly on a dead tree branch. The stream (which flows right to left, and on into the Trent) flows from a low fast flowing low waterfall which should be OK for Grey Wagtails, so I always check the area.  

The hot soup in the visitor centre was most welcome, followed by a bird roll call - we were surprised to find we had logged 41 species just for the morning.

Wednesday, realising if I was cold and needed some protection from the cold, birds would want the same, it was time to do the Winter/Spring clean and make sure everything was ready for our feathered friends.

I started with a visit to Taylors Corn Stores at South Wingfield (Near Alfreton), which is the best local place I know for bird seed. They do every sort of bird food you can want, like peanuts, fat balls etc. The basic mixed seed comes in 20k bags, starting at £11.95, and I know several organisations that buy from this good value source, both to use for feed, and to sell for fund raising.

I gave the two old nest boxes a good clean, with plenty of hot soapy water to wash out all the cr*p, and they duly went back on the fence, which, together with the new nest box I bought at Honiton, makes 3 boxes within sight of the lounge.

The plastic bird seed feeding tube was next for a thorough clean, and a fill, and later in the day a Robin had already found the seed. Finally, the essential bird bath got a good scrub and some clean water. (File Note:  must buy a table tennis ball to stop the ice forming.)

Sunday December 3rd     Today was my final Beginners Walk at Carsington for 2017, and 15 people joined the walk round Stones Island and the visitor centre area.  We started with a short talk on Whooper Swans, which produced the usual argument as to whether the bird is pronounced Hooper, or a Wooper.  Google only adds further debate.

My view is that as the bird whoops, the W is sounded = Whooper.  It does not Hoop, and I can find no references to a hoop having any reference to voice, noise or body sounds. (Oops – maybe!)

Despite something of a paucity of birds we ticked off 33 species, including a distant Great Northern Diver, a pair of Goldeneyes flying past, and a couple of Siskin near the Wildlife Centre. The Siskin turned out to be the BOD, partly because it was the first sighting for 2017. Oh and Redshank and Snipe fly-over on the wader front.

Telescopes were brought to bear to watch the muddy life-saving activities of Mike and Phil. These 2 full time rangers were battling on large wooden sheets, to extricate a sheep which had got stuck in the muddy foreshore at Shiningford Creek.  30 minutes later, and Phil was still hosing down all the gear and clothes they used to do the rescue. Great work guys.

I have 3 reports to write for 2017 to include the bird walks.   1. A review of the year for the participants. 2 A review for the Volunteers annual review newsletter; 3, A review of Carsington Volunteer activities for the Bird Club annual report, so with my blog, there will be quite a bit of writing in December.

Then of course Jan 1 is put the counter back to Zero, and start again. 200 Club….heard that Lorna Lomas (Carsington Volunteer) has moved on to 207, same number as me!!

Happy Birding