No 18 Bird Feeding Resumed

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.

More detail

No 17. The wonderful mini-peregrine....The Hobby!!

 The September walk for Allestree Bird Club was back to Attenborough Gravel Pits, a decision by David which turned out to be  well justified.

Considering there are no food stations at the reserve due to bird flu still being a risk, (the ticked species did not include birds like Dunnock, Blackbird, Reed Bunting, Coal Tit etc)  a list of 39 species was excellent.

An apparently empty field beyond Attenborough cricket club yielded a a Green Woodpecker, a Jay and a Stock Dove, the Pecker doing it's familiar yaffle.

This was followed by the first of 2 very visible Great White Egrets with the huge yellow beaks. And within minutes, we all enjoyed excellent views of a Hobby, clearly hunting for food, probably Devils Darning Needles!!!! better known as Dragon Flies. 

Mike's telescope enabled us to watch this lovely small raptor as it returned to it's high vantage point to continuously turn it's head watching for passing food. Quite clearly the Bird of the Walk.

From the Tower hide we picked up a Green Sandpiper on the Ridge & Furrow field, and finally on Conneries pond we were 80% certain that we saw the female Garganey.

Next walk is five weeks away on Friday 6th October. If the bird flu restrictions have been lifted we will be at Carsington Water. Otherwise it will be a return to Wyver Lane in Belper.

Keep watching this space for the final decision.

As a non birding bonus, my picture of the Blue Moon.

Happy Birding     David