A rewarding birding week!!!

It’s been an interesting week with a variety of birding locations visited. My birding colleagues had other commitments, and the weather was not the most encouraging. So apart from Tuesday I grabbed a few hours when I could. What was evident throughout was how wet everywhere was indicating that waterproof trousers would be essential. Not only warmer, but also stop getting trousers muddy.

Monday 13^th January I picked the closest birding location to home, Allestree Park. The light was poor and many of the birds high in the canopy were in profile. I’d hoped for small birds like Redpoll, Siskin and an elusive one so far this year, Coal Tit.  The net result was that I just added one, a Goldcrest to the year list.

Going back several years, Allestree used to be a good location for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, but they do seem to be very scarce now, and seldom reported. A fellow birder had spotted a male Mandarin Duck, but I could not find it when I retraced my steps.

A female Goosander was on the lower lake, but otherwise just 11 for a 2-hour walk.

Tuesday 14^th January  I was on my own today, so I did a bit of research on local bird sightings. A couple of years ago, Chris and I kept reading about some good bird on the A52 pit on the A52 east of Nottingham, and near Holme Pierrepoint rowing centre. Birds like Smew and American Wigeon come to mind, but the trouble was that to view the pit from the A52 was difficult and dangerous. There are virtually no laybys and traffic is very fast and close. I did find a field gate with approach space where I could park, providing I approached slowly, but then there was the problem of backing onto a busy road when I wanted to leave.   Also, entry to the field was prohibited.

I was told recently that a small commercial business in the viewing area, had closed and the site had been flattened so it was now possible to get to the water edge. I did this today by parking in the lay-by half a mile further on, and then I had to hurdle the barbed wire fence.

And as Janet Webb said, “It was all worthwhile”. Straight away I spotted a lovely White Nun amongst hundreds of Wigeon. So that was Smew off/on my list. A Long-Tailed Duck had been reported, but it is a huge water area, and as the rain was increasing it was really a time for the more intrepid birders… not me!

Well worth the effort, I decided to try Attenborough again, a) for some lunch, and b) for the Cattle Egrets.

With directions from a birder who had spotted one Cattle Egret with the Little Egrets in the Llama field I set off towards Trent Meadows. The sighting area was a bit of a trek, and the last time I did that walk was a few years agio when A Squacco Heron was found. That got a huge turnout, a lot of aggro twixt birders and photographers, with car tyres being let down and a fishing trolley lobbed in the water.

Today, it was windy, lonely wet and cold… but the field with the Llamas was host to 8 Egrets, and with my scope weathering the rain, I identified 6 Little and 2 Cattle Egrets. 

Believe me!!!

This is a photograph from which you can just see they all had their backs to me. But with patience, and when they turned their heads to look at me I was able to identify 6 black beaks and 2 yellow!!  (No’s 2 and 5)  Believe me.. they ARE real.

Wednesday 15^th January  With a free morning, and £2.40 to pay for the parking!!, I decided to have a couple of hours at Markeaton Park.

22 ticks (coincidentally the same number as I got on January 1!!) with nothing special. But I did add a pair of Song Thrushes to my years list and having added some bird food to the feeding table, my patience was rewarded with a couple of Coal Tits.  

Here again, very wet underfoot wherever you walked, and water was really gushing into overflows and torrents.

Saturday18^th January,  Mary and I decided we would go out SOMEWHERE and after dropping off at Sarah’s with Milk, flowers and words of sympathy (she’s a bit poorly) we headed for Lea and Holloway, more significantly to the wharf at High Peak Junction, intending to go on to Cromford for lunch. 

Birders will recognise that the route is designed to include Hawfinch, Dipper and Grey Wagtail plus possible Redpoll and Siskin. Trouble was, the road was closed at Lea Bridge, so we were limited to a short walk to and from the sewage works and the wharf, and guess what?  Walking close to Lea Brook, I spotted a Jay, and on the way back it had morphed into 2!

And also, on the way back Mary asked what that wagging bird was on a house roof……a lovely Grey Wagtail.   The irony is that I have known this whole High Peak Junction area to be good for Grey Wagtails, and I have actually seen one before on the roof of the same house. Explain that!

After a spot of lunch, we went a circuitous route to Upper Matlock to Screechams Lane and Bumper Castle hoping to see the reported Bramblings. Failed.

Sunday 19^th January  With enthusiasm going full pelt, I decided to end the week with a visit to Willington Gravel Pits. I had not anticipated how cold it would be so defrosting the bird bath (and filling the feeders) was the first task. 

The temperature was Zero at Willington, and the gravel pits were fully iced over apart from the few areas where birds had broken the surface. I picked up a takeaway coffee, and in wellies which had Zero insulation, took to the path to the viewing platforms.

There were a few other birders around, and my first encounter told me that for the 3^rd day running a female Hen Harrier had been seen c8.15am. Return time was a bit more varied, and not whilst I was there.  

It got worse!!  Persistent and well entrenched viewers at platforms 1 and 2 had seen the Bittern, and a few instances of skating Water Rails but not me.

Still, on the bright side, there were ticks for 3 Curlews and a pair of Oystercatchers.

You can see it’s been a productive birding week with the addition of an excellent 11  birds.  Just shows how a bit of planning and patience can pay off.

Year to date?  72…ooh, that’s good.. better than this time last year!

My usual Q.I. item.   100 years ago, from last Thursday 16^th January, prohibition of Alcohol was introduced in the USA.  What a party that must have been on the 15^th!!

…. And a poser. This photograph was taken in the rough parking area at the Pits alongside a fast running stream – not very deep but I have seen Kingfishers fly by in the past. The fence protects a large new housing estate on the site which was once a factory.

What I want to know is why do these fences need  gates??!!!

Happy Birding.