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.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
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)
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)
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Saturday 7th November 2009
After the rain last week a complete change this week with a beautiful bright clear morning. It was quite cold, especially in the breeze, with signs of a frost in the more sheltered areas. Early on there a number of high flying flocks of wood pigeon through south, totalling over a hundred birds. Small parties of Redwing were blogging about around the finger lakes and several Skylarks passed over south in ones and twos.
It was hard work getting any ducks this morning with west fingers virtually empty excepting a handful of Mallards, a number of Moorhen and a single Little Grebe. At Kramer hide we had good views of a Kingfisher, two Little Grebe and three Teal (2m1f).
On the canoe slalom we had Pied and Grey Wagtail and back at the main lake hide we had a pair of Gadwall and a female Tufted Duck. Coot numbers were around 30, all on the south side while Great Crested Grebes numbered in excess of 20 and were widespread around the lake.
Goldfinch numbers were high with many heard and seen including a party of 13 at the beach. 4 Bullfinch were seen in the scrub opposite the visitor centre.
EN and Ed caught a young male Sparrowhawk in the rough. There were also a couple of reports of Otters around the finger lakes in recent weeks.
Fenlake now has a splash of water and had attracted quite a good number of Gulls this morning.
Forgot to mention the Mink which I watched at the north east end of the main lake as it climbed up into one of the small willows. Not sure who was watching who but it eventually slipped away unseen until a little further along the reed bed a Moorhen made a bit of a commotion as, presumably, the Mink passed by.
It was hard work getting any ducks this morning with west fingers virtually empty excepting a handful of Mallards, a number of Moorhen and a single Little Grebe. At Kramer hide we had good views of a Kingfisher, two Little Grebe and three Teal (2m1f).
On the canoe slalom we had Pied and Grey Wagtail and back at the main lake hide we had a pair of Gadwall and a female Tufted Duck. Coot numbers were around 30, all on the south side while Great Crested Grebes numbered in excess of 20 and were widespread around the lake.
Goldfinch numbers were high with many heard and seen including a party of 13 at the beach. 4 Bullfinch were seen in the scrub opposite the visitor centre.
EN and Ed caught a young male Sparrowhawk in the rough. There were also a couple of reports of Otters around the finger lakes in recent weeks.
Fenlake now has a splash of water and had attracted quite a good number of Gulls this morning.
Forgot to mention the Mink which I watched at the north east end of the main lake as it climbed up into one of the small willows. Not sure who was watching who but it eventually slipped away unseen until a little further along the reed bed a Moorhen made a bit of a commotion as, presumably, the Mink passed by.
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