Friday 4th August, four of us had a productive morning with a couple of hours bird watching at Carsington Water Reservoir.
Unfortunately, Bird Flu is still an issue, so to be on the
safe side, Severn Trent are not keeping the bird feeders full. It will only be
a matter of time to see whether this reasonable decision, does have consequences,
Going many years back a lot of work was done to encourage
the rare Tree Sparrow to breed at the site, and the efforts were successful. But this species had been known to desert the
site, so the maintaining of the feeders was kept to try and keep the birds loyal. Now with the absence of their favourite
food, there is the risk that ST will have to work at getting them back.
With the help of a very experienced amateur birder, we all saw
a Yellow Legged Gull on a sailing club pier, a species unknown to most of
us. It is a BIG gull, and over the years
is a species that has been seen feeding on young birds/chicks. At one time, they called the resident Yellow
Legs, “Brutus”, which said it all.
So little birds were rare, although Goldfinches were,
prolific, noisy and everywhere!! 4
Little Egrets was a local illustration of how their numbers are
increasing. It was patience that enable
us to see 3 wader types, a Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover and Common
Sandpiper.
Next month, on Friday 1st September, we are going
again to Attenborough Gravel Pits. The previous visit was just Mike and myself,
(when we saw and heard a Cuckoo) and hopefully we will have a few other birders
to experience this great site for the next trip.
We will meet at 10.00am in the main car park by the parking
meter, birding from 10.00 >
12.30.
Happy Birding
David
