Wednesday, November 11, 2009

11th Nov

It was certainly quiet today ('cept the by-pass traffic). I walked the main lake for a change.

21 Coot, 25 Mute Swan (+5 on Fingers), 1m Shoveler, 18 Cormorant, 22 Gt Crested. Didn't bother counting the Black-heads but there was a small number of Common Gull, I noticed.

Also 2 Chiffs in the crescent reed-bed.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Sun 8th - cycle track walk

The need for some exercise provoked this and the fact that I've not been along here for a while.

On 100 acre field and lake:- 20 Pheasant, 14 Stock Dove, 2 Heron, 70 Rook, 160 BH Gull, 20 Common Gull, 2 Mute Swans. 20 Canada over west. 2 young (20 yrs) lads ferreting plus white & tan terrier seen walking up alongside the Meadow Lane hedge.

Octagon pool (back of Canvin's):- 21 Greylag and 7 Heron spooked off by farm loader bringing in a large bag of something to spread on the field. 24 Mutes stayed.

Western field on Octagon (agin settling beds):- pair of Stonechat watched for some while; also 3 Sky Lark, 2 Meadow Pipit, Kestrel. 300 Lapwing pushed off Octagon fields (by farmer?), 100 of which landed on 100 acre along with 35 Starling. No motor-bikers today.

Meadow Lane:- 9 Long-tails, Wren, several Blackbirds, a few Jackdaw and an adult male Sparrowhawk creeping along at low level, disappearing into settling beds. Stoat.

Bottom of New Cut:- a few Goldfinch (5-6?), 3 Siskin, 2 Chaffinch, 2 Greenfinch, & a Chiff.

Ringing on Sat 7th

A very cold start at 3C; with a low sun, it's ages before it peeps over the trees and provides a little warmth.

The catch: Sparrowhawk 1, Wren 2, Dunnock 1, Blackbird 4, Redwing 4, Chiffchaff 1, LTT 1, Blue Tit 4, Gt. Tit 7, Bullfinch 2; =27 birds.


The Chiff was adult and carrying lots of fat, i.e. very healthy. It was singing in the FL willows before we caught it / it caught itself. The 4 Redwings took us through the previous annual record to 18 birds this autumn. All the 4 (new) Blackbirds were in 'continental' plumage, but probably only from the Low Countries or the German plain according to their size.

Other birds picked up included a singing Linnet south, a Brambling blogging and a Kestrel seen off by 7 Sky Larks.

Full details on the Ivel RG blog site (see Links)