Thursday, June 05, 2008

Visit 4 - CES

Thursday
Lovely and sunny with no wind - if that's what you like!
Standard nets produced 6 birds including 3 retraps in 6 hours. An extra 40' net produced 3 more birds, the best of the day! Did some "gardening" to overcome the boredom.
Wren 3/1, Dunnock 1/0 (a juv), Song Thrush 1/0 (a new adult male!), Lesser White 1/0 (the 2nd female), Whitethroat 0/1 (a tatty 2CY male) & Garden W 1/0 (a female).
Also seen/heard - Turtle Dove, pr Cuckoo, pr Shelduck, 2 pr Coll Dove, Green W/pecker.
DK saw the Otter on F/L.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Mid-week ringing session

Wed 4th: Set up the other side of the 'crescent' as usual (spit side).
3 new Reed W inc 2 fem., 4 retrapped - this year, last year, year before & 2004. This last male was not seen by us in between times.
Also another juvvy Robin, both halves of the Dunnock pairing and, as a surprise, a new male Gt. Spot.
The swans were there with their 7 kiddies tucked away on a spit. A hell of a commotion was going on before a pair of swans emerged onto the main path with 4 tired cygnets. These then made their way back up the path to safer waters. Peace restored.
There were 16 Swifts patrolling early on.
Later in the morning, a superb Red Kite flew over the 'fingers' in brilliant sunshine! Wow!

Monday, June 02, 2008

Sunday 1st June

A pleasant wander around the park with EN and a couple of the guided walk regulars. We managed to miss most of the rain somehow! Managed to bag most of the summer migrants with Blackcap and Common Whitethroat seemingly the most numerous. Garden Warbler was a bit tougher with just one in the Rough and then that was out gunned by Song Thrush and Chiffchaff making it difficult for our guests to get to grips with the song.

EN thought he had a Nightingale which flew from the small plantation to the north side of the New Meadow. I didn't see it so cannot comment. We had a quick look over 100 Acre where a single Lapwing flew from the newer workings. A dog walker reported 6 Little Egrets further on the re-landscaped workings further along the cycle path, near the bypass.

Sedge Warbler was hard to come by but at the south east corner of Fingers one was singing and doing display flights and a Common Whitethroat also got in on the act giving great views. The Great Crested Grebe family were still going strong as were the Swan family. A third adult Great Crested Grebe, on west Fingers, looked like it might also be carrying small chicks on its back but we never saw them despite watching for several minutes. Not sure where it came from either so if it does have chicks not sure how it got here! Probably just a rogue adult with the fidgets!

Back at the car park yet another Common Whitethroat showed well while Willow Warblers sang. Then it started raining again, so it was time to go!