Thwarted by The Beast from the East!

STOP PRESS !!!!

In view of the difficult weather conditions, the extremes of temperature (especially near water!) and the unknown weather for Sunday, I have sadly decided to cancel the Bird Watching for Beginners walk on Sunday 4^th March, only the 3^rd cancellation in 155 walks.

Some of you will no doubt have already made your decision, and I have asked Carsington to ring any people booked on the course (who have not already cancelled) to tell them about the cancellation, and I am also hoping that followers of my blog who subscribe to the mail shot for each new post, will get to know about via this communication.

The next walk will therefore be Sunday 1^st April, followed by the Hopefully-Osprey additional walk on Sunday 8^th April, so you will need to contact Carsington to book either or both. Those dates WILL be in heavy demand.

Also, if you are still thinking about my suggested day-away trip in May, please e-mail me your preferences (Davidmjb@outlook.com) if you have not already given me a completed form. I will have set the date and venue etc, by the walk on April 1, and will notify you of my intentions then.

Meanwhile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So much for posting my column early last week, I finished up with a clear indication that I knew little about Gulls, so I amended the post accordingly, and Slyfers the Carer has added her comment - and for Glaucous Gull, now read .. Caspian Gull. Sorry.

Sunday February 25^th I was at Markeaton Park with 2 members of FOMP (The Friends of…) encouraging the public to assemble bird nest boxes, which are to be erected in the park. 

Unfortunately, we only sold 6, so we assembled the remaining 24 and all 30 will be put up in Markeaton park by parks department staff. We had 3 sizes/types, a Robin box, and boxes with small hole for Blue Tits and larger holes for Great Tits

The noise of 3 men hammering 8 bells out of the pre-cut units probably deterred people coming in to see what was happening, although we did sell about 20 sticks and cones full of a fat/seed mix, so hopefully some children will be getting pleasure from watching the birds pecking away for food, particularly in this cold weather.

Tuesday February 27^th,   I guess we did fairly well in Derbyshire, at least in the south, because the snow from Monday to Wednesday was minimal, albeit that it WAS cold.  Chris and I had planned to head north for Crossbill, but not knowing what weather conditions we may encounter, we adopted Plan B and went to Rufford. We had both ticked off Hawfinch this year, and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker would have been nice, but our target was the Marsh Tit.

We dropped seed near the ice house and tempted down Coal Tits and Robins very quickly. Not the weather to loiter we walked to the lake, and spotted 5 Goosander, and picked up a distant Muscovey Duck.  A hungry Robin was sufficiently hungry as to light on my hand 4/5 times to take some seed. Tits just looked – no bottle!

A hot drink was the order of the day, but we thought we would retrace our steps via the ice house just in case, and Bingo!! Excellent clear views of 2 Marsh Tits in the trees overhanging the ice box. 

They were not particularly active, and we could see the markings clearly, the absence of the secondary pale panel (seen in Willow Tits) that I look for, and the smaller tach.

A coffee, AND a scone – well earned. Sadly, all we could do for a rabbit that looked in dire distress was inform a ranger who agreed to take some action.

Eakring was to be the next target for a Garganey although there had been no recent reports. That was the plan until we turned east off the A614 to find the road blocked by 2 cars, one of which was well alight. I think we both felt sufficiently disconcerted as to not wanting to find a diversion, so we just savoured a good tick for a cold day! (Well 2 with the Muscovy.)

As explained above, this issue is early to try and ensure that no one turns up at Carsington the day after tomorrow, for an abortive walk.

Happy Birding