Even only two of us enjoyed the October stroll round the Carsington visitor centre, we did have the reward of two new sightings for the club list.
It was good to see the Wildlife Centre feeders well filled up, Severn Trent apparently content to accept that the avian bird flu has now passed. Unfortunately we came to the conclusion that the news had not yet been shared amongst the avian population of Carsington.
Hoping for Willow Tit and Tree Sparrow, we had to settle for Great and Blue Tits, a lone Robin and Dunnock and a Chaffinch. Frustrated Mallards were abortively circling the feeders waiting for seed to be spilled but the large amount of growing undergrowth was a further sign that their time spent foraging was short.
Anyway, we did see one Coal Tit making the most of the no queuing at the feeders.
It was Ralph who spotted the first handsome Red Crested Pochard behind the Willow Bush, David then found another, but it was site expert Simon Roddis who had recorded 4 of these birds on site.
So just 24 species for our two hours, but with the year total moving on to 80.
The next visit, 3rd November will be to visit Wyver Lane at Belper again. Trees should be bereft of leaves and with Wyver giving a good sighting list earlier in the year hopefully Redwings and Fieldfares will be on our hit list.
I'll post meeting details later in the month.
Happy birding
David.
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