All of a buzz

Yet another bank holiday Monday is upon me and what to do, so many choices!  As I was working at Trentham for a short while in the afternoon I decided to pay a visit to Parrot's Drumble, and ancient woodland on the edge of Stoke on Trent.

The woodland is best known for its bluebells, but it tucked away behind an industrial park just down around the corner from Freeport Talke shopping centre.  The reserve is well worth a visit in spring for the bluebells, and the woodland has some great bird life including spotted flycatcher.  Bird were also another justification for a visit as my volunteer surveyor for the reserve had recorded a singing redstart, the first reserve record.  Sadly no redstart was heard, but I was also to confirm breeding for nuthatch, great spotted woodpecker, blue tit, great tit, song thrush, robin, wren and goldfinch.

As time started to catch up with me I noticed a concentration of bee activity around a particular plant.  I'm still none the wiser to the plant, its another one I need to check up on.  The only identifiable photo I eventually managed was of this male early bumblebee, or at least I think it is!

After the reserve I helped clear up an event at the Trentham Estate in the Italian Gardens.  I hadn't been for several years and the project has really come on and with loads of other things to do.  One of my instant favourites were the patches of alliums planted and the grass allowed to grow.  Great for bees, and a visual treat too.

Doxey babies

After a busy week of databases and bat surveys, my weekend off allowed me to make an afternoon visit to Doxey Marshes today.  It was great to see the mute swans on Cemetery Pool have a new brood of healthy cygnets.  Earlier in the week we had reports that the adults and cygnets had been separated but the RSPCA checked and all was fine, as today.

Babies were a common theme across the reserve today, with several broods of reed bunting evident and being fed by their parents.  Many pools hosted a family of mallard, recently fledged blackbirds were being fed in the hedgerow and many young robins were hoping around.

Thankfully I arrived at the bird hide just in time to escape the rain, and rain it did!  A torrential down pour.  Birds seen included a pair of little-ringed plover, two displaying male lapwing and a single female, a drake shoveler, a pair of common tern and a pair of great crested grebe desperately trying to build up their nest.  The long-tailed tits and sedge warbler continue to nest nearby and several blackcap were in full song.

An unexpected fox caused a brief panic amongst the birds when it woke up from a rest in the vegetation on the scrape wall.  It started to head home, until a nesting pair of canada geese went on full attack.  After a brief chase the fox was back in the area and whilst foraging came a worryingly close to the presumed location of a snipe nest.  An adult snipe quietly walked away from the fox as it approached, as if not to draw attention to the possibility of a nest.  The fox didn't hang around long, so may not have found anything to eat.  Fingers crossed.

Heading home I passed the Oxbow Pool reedbed near Cemetery Pool.  Several warblers were singing including reed, sedge and a willow warbler slightly further down the cycle way, the first I've heard for a while.  One pair of reed warbler were busily flitting through the vegetation, bringing food back to a single location.  Looks like we've got more babies.

One good tern...

After work I made a quick visit to Blithfield Reservoir before an evening meeting back at work.  Six black tern and two little tern were on offer, the latter a great year tick I thought I'd have to catch up with on the coast somewhere.

Up early and enjoying the sun

Today was the rescheduled dawn chorus walk at Doxey Marshes.  Being later in the season not all the birds usually expected were in full song, but we still clocked up several warblers including chiffchaff, blackcap, sedge, reed and grasshopper.  Waders were a bit thin on the ground as water levels continue to drop from the recent flooding but a snipe was feeding on the shoreline of Tillington Flash whilst a lapwing displayed overhead.

Star bird without a doubt was an unexpected sanderling on the shoreline of Creswell Flash.  A great little treat.  Apologies for the awful photo.

This afternoon I made my way to Loynton Moss, probably my favourite Trust nature reserve.  The flower meadows were beginning to burst in to life and the first few orchids were also in bloom.  Common spotted were an unexpected surprise but I was glad to find southern marsh orchid in the wetter parts of the grassland, or so I thought...

After sending the photos to a colleague at the Trust it appears the orchids could be early marsh orchids, and not southern.  The photo has been sent off for verification.  Any orchid experts out there care to make a suggestion?  Tweet me @ScottoftheMarsh

Barn owls and the BBC

Today I was up in the Staffordshire Moorlands near the Roaches to film a news piece with BBC Midlands Today and the Barn Owl Action Group (BOAG) from Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.  The piece was focussing on the dramatic decline in numbers over the last 12 months following the harsh cold winter of 2013.  To date BOAG have had just 15 reports of barn owls in 2014.

To report a barn owl sighting, visit the Trust website - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/node/6378

In 2012 BOAG had their best ever year with 54 pairs breeding in their nest boxes.  Just a year later, 2013, saw their worst ever year with just 15 pairs.  Whilst filming we saw a hobby, a raven and heard a cuckoo.  On my way home I called in at the Roaches and the Peregrine Watch point to see the birds.  We presume the chicks have hatched, but its difficult to see the nest site so we haven't managed to see them just yet.

A near miss

I'd put my remote camera out on Doxey Marshes over the weekend on a patch of mud which had been attracting a few wading birds including dunlin and ringed plover.  When I placed the camera there was a nice area of mud and I did manage a couple of (poor) videos of dunlin feeding and flying around.  A redshank was also a surprise, along with a video of what I think is a common sandpiper although the quality if poor.  Screenshots to follow and the videos will appear on the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Facebook page, just like them to see - https://www.facebook.com/StaffsWildlife

Thankfully when I picked the camera up today I was just in time to save it from the rising water levels!

Gutted!

The highlight today was a photo taken by a colleague of a female goosander swimming down the river at the Wolseley Centre with four recently hatched young!  A fantastic breeding record for a species listed as a rare breeder in the West Midlands.  So why am I gutted?  I missed it and I'm still yet to see these cute little things in person.

The news broke (after they told me anyway) on the Trust's Twitter via @StaffsWildlife.  Take a look here and follow them - https://twitter.com/StaffsWildlife

Staff outing

Lunch time today saw a group of staff from the Trust head out to George's Hayes nature reserve, a lovely block of woodland on the edge of Cannock Chase between Rugeley and Lichfield.  The reserve has a fantastic display of woodland wildflowers including the biggest colony of native daffodils in Staffordshire.  Obviously at this time of the year daffodils are finished, but the woodland is filled with wild garlic and bluebells with the odd patch of yellow archangel.

The woodland is definitely worth a visit in the next week or so.  Visit the Trust website for details - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/georges-hayes

This evening I attended the first Staffordshire Mammal Group summer evening visit of the year, this time to Trentham.  Members of the Deer Study Society were on hand to show us around, but as usual birds were well represented on this mammal outing.  The main highlight was my first hobby of the year, a fantastic sight as it caused havoc for a flock of hirundines above.  Other highlights were kingfisher, sedge warblers and several grey heron returning to the local breeding colony on the islands.

Mammals seen or field signs recorded included otter along the river, a hedgehog scat, fox scats, deer trails, a badger sett, a couple of rabbits and a fox running across the car park.  Several bats were also seen and heard including noctules.  Everyone is welcome to attend Staffordshire Mammal Group events, absolutely no experience is needed!  Find out more here - http://www.staffordshiremammalgroup.org.uk

Otter prints along the river

All of a buzz

Today I attended a bumblebee ID course run by Bumblebee Conservation Trust at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust education centre in Matlock Bath.  The course was great, and I'd thoroughly recommend you keep an eye out in case they run the course again.  Before the course began I had chance to look around Matlock Bath Woods cSAC.  The woodland grows on a limestone slope and is covered in wild garlic, bluebells and other woodland flowers.  Plenty of stock doves appear to be breeding here too, along with a blue tit actively 'washing' itself by rubbing through wet hawthorn leaves rather than finding a puddle to bath in.

By starting with the 'big 8' species and how to ID them we moved on to a walk around the local area putting our new skills to use.  We ended with 5 species on our walk; buff-tailed, tree, gypsy cuckoo, red-tailed and garden.  I now hope to put these skills to good use on Trust nature reserves and increase the records for the species.

On my way home I called in at the Trust's Thorswood nature reserve and finally found early-purple orchids, a species I've wanted to catch up with for a long time.  In the end I found 15 flowering spikes on the side of a mound.  The mountain pansies are still flowering nicely, and hopefully in a month or so the reserve should be filled with other orchids including common spotted, greater butterfly and frog.

A bank holiday bird

A less productive bank holiday than I should have had, I ambled across to Doxey Marshes not expecting much.  To my delight a wood sandpiper was along the shoreline of Tillington Flash with a pair of little-ringed plover, a ringed plover, lapwing and snipe.  On the scrape wall were a single oystercatcher and redshank.  Seven species of wader without even trying too hard, two of which were year ticks.

Sadly the wood sandpiper remained distant but pictures on Staffordshire Bird News suggests it came closer to the hide as the day progressed.  Also present was a shelduck, several gadwall and another little-ringed plover on a dried up pool near the Dead Arm.

Thankfully the species is nearly guaranteed in the first few weeks of May on the reserve, the only year I missed it was last year as I was in New York for the spring.

Spot the birdie

A lot can happen in a week...

... but most of this week has been office based so not too much to report on.

On Monday I headed north for the evening to take a look around for some owls at one of my favourite sites for them.  Previously I've had tawny, long-eared, little and barn in one evening with short-eared report nearby.  A pair of tawny owls were in a nest box in a patch of woodland, whilst nearby the little owls were out hunting.  Sadly no barn owls this evening.  More annoying was a local lapwing site which has been mown destroying at least two nests.  The males were displaying again so they may have a second go at it.

Wednesday / Thursday saw more newt survey work, this time ten great crested newts were seen on the torchlight survey, with six caught the following morning in bottle traps.  Bat survey season has also started at the consultancy, but thankfully I'm not on the first few although its looking like a very busy summer ahead.

The weekend has so far been mainly work, but much better than the office.  Saturday started early with a dawn chorus walk at Highgate Common.  Before we'd even left the car park a cuckoo was calling nearby.  The brilliant heathland nature reserve is important for its invertebrates including oil beetle and bloody-nosed beetle but it also has some great birds.  Whitethroat were evident and plenty of willow warbler around, but stars of the show were tree pipit.  One individual even performed its parachuting display just a few feet in front of us before giving everyone in the group great views on the ground.

Afterwards I called in at Doxey Marshes for a walk in the glorious sunshine.  I was greeted by a lesser whitethroat singing near the eastern entrance gate at the memorial pyramid whilst the walk to the bird hide held probably the highest count of sedge warbler I've managed for this part of the reserve; 18 singing males!  Should be a great show for the dawn chorus walk next weekend, for which a few places are still available so check out the Trust website for details - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/dawnchorus

Speaking of dawn chorus walks, today was my second this time at the Trust's HQ near Rugeley.  The Wolseley Centre isn't famed for its birds but offers the chance to see species up close, and this time followed by a bacon sandwich!  Species seen included blackcap, garden warbler, reed warbler, chiffchaff and song thrush.  The kingfisher even put in an appearance on the river too.

Once that was over my day moved to Tamworth to deliver another bird ID training session for Dosthill LNR volunteers.  A nice collection of species at this surprising park included sedge warbler, great views of whitethroat and a beautiful pair of mistle thrush to end the day.  A family of recently fledged blackbirds were also great to see.

All in all a great weekend, and there is a bank holiday tomorrow so even more birding time ahead!