It's been pretty quiet on the bird front, not unusual at this time of year when some of the migratory species are already on their way back to their wintering grounds and many others become more elusive as they go through their moult. Many of the small passerines are coming together in roaming flocks so if you come across one of these it's like hitting the jackpot. They are usually given away by the constant and distinctive calls of the Long-tailed Tits which usually make up a significant proportion of the flock. There are usually one or more family groups of Long-tailed Tits in these flocks but also look out for other Tits, Finches, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers.
This week we had a few Willow Warblers around the park as they make progress south on their way back to Africa for the winter. There were also at least 8 Gadwalls on the Finger Lakes early on. These are quite tricky to distinguish from the Mallards as they all go through their moults but if you happen to see them side by side it becomes easier as they are slightly smaller and the head shape is more rounded.
The ringers were in the Rough again and had a couple of reasonable hauls while we were there. Plenty of juvenile Blackcaps were caught and it was interesting to see to difference in appearance as they were at various stages of post juvenile moult.
Now that a path has been cleared on 100 Acre we are able to get over there again and were rewarded with a Cuckoo. This is quite a late record for this species, many of the BTO tracked Cuckoos are already in Africa with others in central or southern Europe (Tracking Cuckoos to Africa... and back again).
There are a lot of new fences going up on 100 Acre and new paths will follow, for the time being the path along the river is blocked in several places.
4 Little Egrets were present on the large lake and we had 2 Kestrels hunting between the large lake and the Sewage Works Pool. A Common Buzzard was heard by the river down towards Castle Mill and a couple of Swallows were seen in the same area. At the end of our wander around 100 Acre we flushed 5 Green Sandpipers on the Sewage Works Pool.
Back in the park there were a few Sand Martins over the Main lake in the south west corner, a small number of Swifts were also present.
The 2 Tufted Duck families remain and 4 well developed youngsters were also present on Saturday having flown in from elsewhere.
In the afternoon I went back to 100 Acre hoping to photograph the Great Crested Grebes which have 2 chicks. The photography wasn't great but I did see a Snipe and a Sedge Warbler so a pretty good afternoon.
Those were the highlights for this weekend.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
Recent goings on in the park
It's been a while so here's what's been going on in the park recently.
First up the volunteers were back in early in the month and put in a great shift clearing the path between thee the cycle track near Fish Ponds down to and along the river to the spillway. This was becoming overgrown in some areas and now the new bridge is in place over the Marina entrance people were wanting to use it again so it's been cleared. Thanks to everyone who came along and helped.
Please note that the August volunteer task has been cancelled but hopefully we'll be back to normal in September.
It's been pretty quiet in the park on the bird front, just the normal stuff and sometimes pretty hard to come by on the hot days. Plenty of Green Woodpeckers about so sometimes quiet is not quite the word to use. This weekend just gone we had some nice views of a Jay and the first Willow Warbler on it's way back south. Amazingly this was exactly the same date as we had the first returning Willow Warbler last year and only 2 days different from the year before (thanks DK).
On Friday evening I tagged along on the guided bat walk led by Danny Fellman. This was very well attended and we managed 4 species of bat although not the numbers we might have liked. Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle, Noctule and Daubentons were all caught on the detectors. The Pips and the Daubentons were seen with the Daubentons providing excellent views over the Finger Lakes. I also spotted a Hedgehog as it crossed the main path between the Beach and Fingers and heard a Common Sandpiper and an Oystercatcher, the later being between 22:30 and 23:00.
It was a busy weekend in the park with the Archaeological dig and display on both days and the Triathlon, Canoe Slalom and Guided Bird Walk all on Sunday. The Bird Walk was a bit of struggle with birds, butterflies and dragonflies all playing hard to find. Fortunately EG was ringing in the Rough and had a bumper haul just as I arrived with the group so we all got some close up views of the birds in the hand as they were processed. Here are a few pics kindly provided by Chris Smart:
A nice variety of birds there and we also had a few Blackcaps. Once again many thanks to EG for his time and patient explanation of the ringing process.
There were quite a few butterflies on the flower meadow but these were mostly Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns with the odd White sp. just for variety.
100 Acre is not ideal for taking groups onto at the moment with head high nettles in abundance, so we headed out along the cycle track and down to the end of 100 Acre where it looks over to Castle Mill. There has been a lot of work here in recent weeks and the large earth mounds have gone, having been used to bring the gravel workings back up to level. There wasn't much to see here although there was a nice flock of 125 Lapwings on the earth works and quite a few Carrion Crows picking over the bare earth on the lookout for invertebrates to eat. The water level has dropped a lot on 100 Acre, unsurprisingly, but 8 Little Egrets were working the edges of the lake and family of Great Crested Grebes with 4 youngsters was great to see. As we turned to leave I spotted a Kestrel low over the earthworks and it perched for a while before flying off and giving us good views.
There was little else of note other than a small party of Goldfinches in the scrub opposite Meadow Lane GP, as we made our way back to the park.
The next guided bird walk is on Sunday 31st August at 8am, meet at the visitor centre.
First up the volunteers were back in early in the month and put in a great shift clearing the path between thee the cycle track near Fish Ponds down to and along the river to the spillway. This was becoming overgrown in some areas and now the new bridge is in place over the Marina entrance people were wanting to use it again so it's been cleared. Thanks to everyone who came along and helped.
Please note that the August volunteer task has been cancelled but hopefully we'll be back to normal in September.
It's been pretty quiet in the park on the bird front, just the normal stuff and sometimes pretty hard to come by on the hot days. Plenty of Green Woodpeckers about so sometimes quiet is not quite the word to use. This weekend just gone we had some nice views of a Jay and the first Willow Warbler on it's way back south. Amazingly this was exactly the same date as we had the first returning Willow Warbler last year and only 2 days different from the year before (thanks DK).
On Friday evening I tagged along on the guided bat walk led by Danny Fellman. This was very well attended and we managed 4 species of bat although not the numbers we might have liked. Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle, Noctule and Daubentons were all caught on the detectors. The Pips and the Daubentons were seen with the Daubentons providing excellent views over the Finger Lakes. I also spotted a Hedgehog as it crossed the main path between the Beach and Fingers and heard a Common Sandpiper and an Oystercatcher, the later being between 22:30 and 23:00.
It was a busy weekend in the park with the Archaeological dig and display on both days and the Triathlon, Canoe Slalom and Guided Bird Walk all on Sunday. The Bird Walk was a bit of struggle with birds, butterflies and dragonflies all playing hard to find. Fortunately EG was ringing in the Rough and had a bumper haul just as I arrived with the group so we all got some close up views of the birds in the hand as they were processed. Here are a few pics kindly provided by Chris Smart:
 |
| Reed Warbler |
 |
| Juvenile Robin |
 |
| Robins wing |
 |
| Juvenile Green Woodpecker |
 |
| Juvenile Green Woodpecker |
 |
| Dunnock |
 |
| Blue Tit wing |
 |
| Song Thrush |
 |
| Song Thrush having its tummy tickled :-) |
A nice variety of birds there and we also had a few Blackcaps. Once again many thanks to EG for his time and patient explanation of the ringing process.
 |
| Gatekeeper Butterfly |
100 Acre is not ideal for taking groups onto at the moment with head high nettles in abundance, so we headed out along the cycle track and down to the end of 100 Acre where it looks over to Castle Mill. There has been a lot of work here in recent weeks and the large earth mounds have gone, having been used to bring the gravel workings back up to level. There wasn't much to see here although there was a nice flock of 125 Lapwings on the earth works and quite a few Carrion Crows picking over the bare earth on the lookout for invertebrates to eat. The water level has dropped a lot on 100 Acre, unsurprisingly, but 8 Little Egrets were working the edges of the lake and family of Great Crested Grebes with 4 youngsters was great to see. As we turned to leave I spotted a Kestrel low over the earthworks and it perched for a while before flying off and giving us good views.
There was little else of note other than a small party of Goldfinches in the scrub opposite Meadow Lane GP, as we made our way back to the park.
The next guided bird walk is on Sunday 31st August at 8am, meet at the visitor centre.
 |
| The group checking out the Lapwing flock on Castle Mill earthworks (Picture courtesy of Glen Bowen) |
Monday, June 30, 2014
Guided Walk - Sunday 29/06/2014
A great turn out for the first of the summer guided bird walks. Through June, July and August we start at 8am instead of 9am but far from putting people off we had a group of 17!
We started off with a scan of the main lake. The highlight here was a small party of Sand Martins over the south west corner. Canada and Greylag Geese were present, the former in large numbers now they have left their nests. We only have 16 goslings on the main lake so the egg oiling this year seems to have done the trick. Great Crested Grebes are also increasing in numbers as are Coots, returning after the breeding season. At least one pair of the Grebes did stay and breed and have 2 youngsters, still time for more to come out of hiding.
Down to the Finger lakes we found singing Reed Warblers in the reed beds, but while enjoying those and a couple of singing Greenfinches we were treated to the sound of a purring Turtle Dove in the Crescent. What a cracker! There was also a singing Reed Bunting in the Crescent. A few Mallards are beginning to congregate on the Finger lakes, the males looking quite untidy now as the go into eclipse during their moult. This is when they take on the appearance of females losing all their fine colours as worn feathers are replaced. Look out for the yellow bills of the males in eclipse to differentiate them from the dark/orange bills of the females and this years juvenile birds.
In with the Mallards was a single Gadwall, denoted by the white wing flash which was showing well. It can be quite tricky to see this especially at this time of year with all the ducks in various stages of moult.
A single Grey Heron, Coots and Moorhens were also present here and Common Terns were passing over on there short journeys between the main lake and 100 Acre.
Our attempts to get the Terns to nest on the main lake island have been unsuccessful this year. I think the huge amount of foliage that has shot up this year has put them off although successful breeding of both Oystercatcher and Redshank on the island this year is great news. The introduction of the Tern raft and maybe some more efforts to control the weed growth on the island next year should hopefully get the Terns back again after their breeding attempts last year.
Along the Navigation Channel we got distracted by Damselflies and Butterflies although we did get good views of a pair of Common Whitethroats in the nettles. Common Blues and Banded Demoiselles were in abundance and we also had good views of Comma, Small Tortoiseshell and Large Skipper butterflies. There were also a lot of 7 Spot Ladybirds both adults and various stages of development.
We moved on to 100 Acre, taking the path alongside the river to avoid the worst of the nettles which are taking over the other tracks. A Reed Bunting was singing on the far side of the sewage works pool and after a while I managed to locate it and get good scope views for everyone. A singing Sedge Warbler was next, perched up on one of the many Hemlock seed heads. We watched for a while and were treated to a song flight to finish the show. Another Common Whitethroat was in the next clump of Hemlock before we came to the end of the trail, it having become very overgrown.
We stopped here for a while to scan the big lake. A Hobby was briefly on view but only a few of us saw it as it flew across 100 Acre and crossed the river and went out of sight behind the trees. Oystercatcher, Little Egret, Lapwing, House Martin and Sand Martin were all seen. Common Terns were busy over the island keeping their chicks fed.
Leaving 100 Acre we cut back through the park on the way back to the visitor and bagged a few more insects on the way including some lovely Ringlet butterflies and a stunning female Common Darter dragonfly. One of the White butterflies flew past but I didn't get a good enough view to say whether it was a Small or Large White.
We finished off with a few Swifts over the Rough and New Meadow before arriving back at the VC just as the rain started. A pretty good morning and we just about avoided the rain.
The next guided bird walk is on Sunday 27th July, meet at 8am outside the visitor centre.
We started off with a scan of the main lake. The highlight here was a small party of Sand Martins over the south west corner. Canada and Greylag Geese were present, the former in large numbers now they have left their nests. We only have 16 goslings on the main lake so the egg oiling this year seems to have done the trick. Great Crested Grebes are also increasing in numbers as are Coots, returning after the breeding season. At least one pair of the Grebes did stay and breed and have 2 youngsters, still time for more to come out of hiding.
Down to the Finger lakes we found singing Reed Warblers in the reed beds, but while enjoying those and a couple of singing Greenfinches we were treated to the sound of a purring Turtle Dove in the Crescent. What a cracker! There was also a singing Reed Bunting in the Crescent. A few Mallards are beginning to congregate on the Finger lakes, the males looking quite untidy now as the go into eclipse during their moult. This is when they take on the appearance of females losing all their fine colours as worn feathers are replaced. Look out for the yellow bills of the males in eclipse to differentiate them from the dark/orange bills of the females and this years juvenile birds.
In with the Mallards was a single Gadwall, denoted by the white wing flash which was showing well. It can be quite tricky to see this especially at this time of year with all the ducks in various stages of moult.
A single Grey Heron, Coots and Moorhens were also present here and Common Terns were passing over on there short journeys between the main lake and 100 Acre.
Our attempts to get the Terns to nest on the main lake island have been unsuccessful this year. I think the huge amount of foliage that has shot up this year has put them off although successful breeding of both Oystercatcher and Redshank on the island this year is great news. The introduction of the Tern raft and maybe some more efforts to control the weed growth on the island next year should hopefully get the Terns back again after their breeding attempts last year.
Along the Navigation Channel we got distracted by Damselflies and Butterflies although we did get good views of a pair of Common Whitethroats in the nettles. Common Blues and Banded Demoiselles were in abundance and we also had good views of Comma, Small Tortoiseshell and Large Skipper butterflies. There were also a lot of 7 Spot Ladybirds both adults and various stages of development.
 |
| Small Tortoiseshell |
We stopped here for a while to scan the big lake. A Hobby was briefly on view but only a few of us saw it as it flew across 100 Acre and crossed the river and went out of sight behind the trees. Oystercatcher, Little Egret, Lapwing, House Martin and Sand Martin were all seen. Common Terns were busy over the island keeping their chicks fed.
 |
| Common Tern with fish |
We finished off with a few Swifts over the Rough and New Meadow before arriving back at the VC just as the rain started. A pretty good morning and we just about avoided the rain.
The next guided bird walk is on Sunday 27th July, meet at 8am outside the visitor centre.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)