A Hotchpotch of news!!

Thursday 6.50pm and here we go. Good to know we are in the next round, but ironic that it should help our future matches if we lose tonight.

A few things to tell you, both from when we were on holiday, and since our return.

Aspirants for the 200 club are finding it difficult to increase their year count, with Amanda on c182, and me (subject to below) on 171.

But Christine with husband John had a Heatherlee birding holiday in the Western Isles and had a fabulous time with 15 birds added to her 2018-year list. White Tailed Eagle, Golden Eagle, Corncrake were just 3 of the good birds, and she is currently poised on 199.  Poised that is, because a Bittern or even a Kingfisher will get her the 200.

I was away for the Markeaton Bird Walk, so 3 regular birders were escorted by Dawn for the morning. 5 Juvenile Goosanders were seen, which seems to confirm the good news that annual breeding is still taking place on the big island. They also saw 4 Mandarin Ducks, one being a juvenile, so they are breeding somewhere. Mandarins are strange birds, for ducks, as they breed low down in trees, and I recall on one occasion that Mandarins were reported as nesting in Padley Gorge.

Our new fountain seems to be attracting the birds, and Mary picked up the vivid green and yellow of a couple of Greenfinches who I assume had smelt the water.

Someone left a message on the Friends of Markeaton Park web site (which also has reports of what my BwB walks have seen), reporting 3 Ring Necked Parakeets flying over the A38 near the park. I think the reporter were a little startled by the sighting.

I did a talk on Tuesday morning to the Church Wilne Probus Club, about the Carsington Water Osprey Project, and came away with a generous donation for the Volunteer Rangers Osprey nest maintenance fund. I also came away with a booking for Dave Drury, a full time Severn Trent Ranger, to talk to them about Carsington Water itself, from the inception, building and operation, and how the water management fits in with the wider Severn Trent water networks.

Incidentally, if you don’t know of the Probus Club, it stands for Professional and Business men, and is for retired people who enjoy meetings and talks together.

Tuesday June 26^th and after a longish break from birding together, Chris and I spent the morning at Attenborough Gravel Pits.   Turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far, so as we were toting scopes, pods and bins, we limited our birding to the 2 hides. At least we were out of the direct sun. Many young birds around, no raptors, but we did tick a Black Swan, heard but could not find a Lesser Whitethroat (we both want that one for our year list!!!).  I was pleased to see a pair of Ruddy Shelduck, moving me on to 172.

Liquid input was important, so we started with a coffee, and then returned for lunch. Ok until Chris started on my mushroom soup instead of waiting for the Panini she had ordered.   HER senior moment this time, not mine.

We had a planning session for the rest of June, so Tuesday week is Old Moor, me hopefully for 

Yellowhammer and Green Pecker, and Chris for Kingfisher or Bittern. One of those would be a nice memorable number 200 for Chris.

I’ll let you know next week why you have had 3 posts this week!!!

In the meantime, happy birding, oh and enjoy your walk on Sunday with Keith and Gary!!!!

Was the football result predictable?  No…. but useful!!