A tale of two halves

Over the next couple of years I'm taking part in a Wildlife Trust training programme, with sessions taking place all over the north of England.  Today's course was in Kendal at the Cumbria Wildlife Trust HQ, tantalising close to Leighton Moss just over the border in Lancashire.

So close in fact I was up and out the house at 4am, determined to fit a few hours birding in at Leighton Moss before the course started at 9:30am.  The first stop on your visit should always be Lillian's Hide, not least because its the closest to the car park.  The RSPB are currently undertaking some management work in the reedbed and have dropped the water level in the pool in front of the hide leaving a vast expanse of mud, and as such many waders are being seen.

It was still dark when I arrived, but I could just make out flocks of little egret leaving the roost and heading out to the saltmarshes to feed for the day.  Along with the little egrets, two great white egrets left the roost and dropped on to the pool in front of the hide.  As the light improved a large flock of black-tailed godwits became apparent, as did a group of ruff busily feeding along the water's edge.  Whilst watching the ruff I noticed two smaller waders following them, little stint!  Gorgeous little things.

Before I had to leave other birds of note seen included wigeon, pintail, snipe, water rail, gadwall, teal, shoveler and a marsh tit.  I then proceeded to Kendal for the rest of the day.

With the course finishing at 4:30pm there was still plenty of time to make another visit to Leighton Moss for a few hours and take in the spectacle of the egret roost.  Revisiting Lillian's Hide new species included marsh harrier, house martin, bullfinch, chiffchaff, bearded tit and treecreeper whilst a flock of 25 pink-feet flew down the valley.

I also increased my count of several species, including pintail up to 26 and water rail to 3.  Just before leaving the hide there was a sudden rush of coot, the perfect indicator for the presence of an otter.  Sure enough one of these great mammals swam around the edge of the reedbed before disappearing into the vegetation.

The best place to view the little egret roost is actually from the road from the Visitor Centre back towards the village of Yealand Redmayne.  The roost is in a group of trees on an island at the north end of the reedbed.  Over the course of an hour and a half I counted 125 little egret and at least 3 great white egret drop into the roost.  A great end to a very long but productive day!

If you've never been to Leighton Moss, I can't recommend it enough.  For me, its definitely one of the top 5 nature reserves in the UK.  Find out more here - http://www.rspb.org.uk/leightonmoss

Greenshank and chips

Today I headed off up to the Wirral coast for the afternoon to see what delights were around Parkgate Marsh.  Previous visits have produced hen harrier, short-eared owl, peregrine and merlin hunting over the saltmarsh.  It's still a little early in the year for that excitement but the birds present didn't disappoint.

In between showers I clocked up a personal best of 28 greenshank, 17 lapwing, 4 snipe, 6+ little egret, 2 black-tailed godwits, 3 little grebe, 1 redshank and several curlew out across the marsh in between the showers.  There were small groups of swallows passing through, eventually totalling 24 birds.  As well as the birds, its customary to visit the local chippy and ice cream shop to top off the experience!

If you've never been to Parkgate Marsh for the high tides I'd thoroughly recommend it.  The tide completely covers the marsh and hits the seawall when its over 9m in height, flushing everything up just in time for the raptors!  Its not that uncommon to see thousands of waders, geese and ducks take to the sky along with the odd water rail.  You might even see a few mammals caught short.  I've personally seen fox swimming back to land and a mole disappear up a drain pipe trying to escape the rising water.

Keep an eye on the Dee Estuary blog to see what has been around, and the dates for the next high tide over 9m - http://www.deeestuary.co.uk

Treading new ground

Its a very rare occasion when I get to explore a part of Doxey Marshes that I've never been to before.  Today was one of those days, so I was more than a little excited.

The area in question was an area of phragmites reedbed, probably the biggest area on the reserve.  Sadly its a section of the reserve that isn't open the public, Cadbury Pasture.  Armed with my mate Jack and a pair of waders each we searched around the reedbed trying to find a way in.  Easier said than done as the reedbed is some what of an island, completely surrounded by ditches, ditches that appeared to be too deep and wide to get across.  Luckily we found a route into the phragmites, but not before we pushed through several hundred metres of reed-mace and sedge.

Before entering the phragmites I recalled a piece of research that showed that reed warblers tend to nest within 2 metres of an edge.  Sure enough, no sooner had we entered the phragmites than we found a reed warbler nest, and to our surprise it contained 3 abandoned eggs.

Long before we'd even started our assault on walking through the reedbed it was another warbler that caught our attention, a cetti's warbler.  A couple of birds have been recorded on the reserve over the course of this year, and previous years, but this was my first bird on Cadbury Pasture.  A brief burst of song in alarm was the first give away, before a brief sighting of the bird investigating the disturbance in a world where no person has ever ventured before.

All in all it was another great day, and a rare one as there are very few areas of the reserve I've not explored before.  Unfortunately access is very difficult on foot so getting any machinery in there is pretty much out the question.  It always been my dream to expand the area of phragmites as it could one day host some fantastic reedbed birds.  However on my return to the office my colleague Jeff announced he had a plan...

Here's hoping!

Planning the future

Today I was out at a meeting with Aggregate Industries as part of their Biodiversity Benchmark Partnership meetings.  The quarry at Barton-under-Needwood and Branston sits in the Tame Valley, a river corridor with huge potential.  Much of the land along the valley is either actively being quarried, restored quarry or farmland.  Most days there are reports on Staffordshire Bird News of birds and other wildlife seen at Branston gravel pits.  Little egrets, ducks and waders galore make this site and the whole valley an exciting prospect for wildlife, and people watching it.

Check out the Staffordshire Bird News blog here

In the valley the Trust have two nature reserves, Croxall Lakes and Tucklesholme, whilst the Central Rivers Initiative scheme covers the area between Burton-upon-Trent and Tamworth.  Heading south from Tamworth there is another Living Landscape scheme, the Tame Valley Wetlands.

Find out more about the Tame Valley Wetland Living Landscape scheme here

Find out more about the Central Rivers Initiative here


After the meeting I had a look around part of the restored quarry, where the Trust is helping to manage the land.  Eventually there will be public access to the fields where there is a field managed for breeding lapwing, and a newly created hay meadow I'll be working on this autumn.  To top it all off there will be views across the main lake and a woodland walk.

On the lake today were 9 little egret, many tufted ducks, great crested grebes and a few teal.  By far the most surprising thing were the huge number of little grebe, 44 in all!  Never have I seen so many.

My final sighting was a knot grass moth caterpillar, a brilliant little fluffy thing with great colour.

If you don't try, you'll never know

I definitely got a lesson in how this saying can apply to bird watching today.

The day started with another ringing session at Belvide with Brewood Ringers.  Sadly it wasn't as productive as the previous session, although there was a noticeable arrival of goldcrests to the site, of which 3 were caught.  Along with another 20+ meadow pipits the only other species of interest were chiffchaff, with 9 caught.

There seemed to be a distinct lack of birds around, so reluctantly I called in at Doxey Marshes on my way home.  I wasn't hopeful, I told myself there'd be nothing to see, but I was already out I couldn't face spending the rest of the day indoors.  Little did I know that this would be a great decision.

Whilst playing another round of passerine peak-a-boo (if you have no idea what I mean by this, see an earlier post), a bird of prey caught my eye on the other side of the hedge.  Instantly it looked different from the initially expected buzzard.  Marsh harrier!  A female type was quartering the grassland near the river before flying off up the valley and out of sight, being pursued by a few black-headed gulls.  The bird reappeared briefly some half an hour later, but again flew out of sight.

Cue terrible photo taken hastily through binoculars...

As I headed around the circular walk, a flock of lapwing flew up from the scrape and began circling.  Three ruff were flying around too, a great treat and sadly a sometimes less than annual species on the reserve, at least from the reports we get anyway.  Another bird then caught my eye, a small wader was in amongst them, a very small wader.  I am still trying to decide what that bird was, possibly a stint?  It looked too small for a dunlin.  In my attempts to find out just what the bird was I found myself crawling through the field towards the edge of the scrape.  Yes, crawling...

The scrape was a feast of birds.  Around 200 lapwing sat around the water's edge whilst at least a dozen snipe could be easily seen feeding.  A few teal and mallard drifted back and forth, dabbling away.  Then two of the ruff appeared from behind a clump of rushes and eventually passed right by me just 20ft away.  A dunlin then appeared from behind the lapwing, and two green sandpipers were  busy chasing each other around the uncut patches of vegetation.

Along with another good helping of chiffchaff, a male blackcap, 15 wigeon and what seemed like a swarm of migrant hawker dragonflies, all in all it turned out to be a great day on the reserve.  Just goes to show that if you don't try, you'll never know...

Up early, but worth the effort

Today I was up early to join Brewood Ringers at Belvide Reservoir.  The last session was a poor catch with just 14 birds, so it wasn't an easy decision to get out of bed at 5am.

Thankfully I did, and it turned out to be a really pleasing morning.  Along with the regulars, Jack joined us for his first session and the birds didn't disappoint.  He was able to ring his first great spotted woodpecker, kingfisher and meadow pipit, not bad I'm sure you'll agree!

Brewood Ringers have a regularly updated blog with details and pictures of the team's efforts.  Take a look here - http://www.brewoodringers.com

Some of the ringing team have also been in Norway recently catching a different collection of species, including several waders.  You can catch up on their antics here - http://varangerringing.blogspot.co.uk

Passerine peak-a-boo

A gloriously sunny day was on the cards, and it was crying out for some autumnal birding.  Unless you're on the east coast of the UK, it seems as though migrants are hard to come by inland but with a bit of effort you can pick up a few bits and pieces.  Ringing sessions at Belvide have shown that with a great passage of spotted flycatcher and redstart.

Today I tried my luck at Doxey Marshes.  Sadly water levels are still quite high so the chance of waders was slim outside of lapwing and snipe.  With that in mind I turned my attention to the hedgerows and bramble patches for passerines, and so the game of peak-a-boo began.

The hedgerows were full of calling chiffchaff, with the odd bird even breaking into a bit of song.  In all I encountered at least 19 chiffchaff but also lurking in the hedgerows were 2 blackcap, 4 robin, 8 blackbird, a lesser whitethroat, 4 blue tit, 2 great tit, 3 long-tailed tits, 1 reed warbler, 7 goldfinch, 8 greenfinch, 3 wrens, 1 reed bunting and a dunnock.  So if you pass a hedgerow in the next week or so, stop for a moment and see what you can see.

Insects were also well represented along the hedgerows, with butterflies feeding on blackberries and dragonflies picking off midges.  Species seen included 2 red admiral, a comma, 3 speckled wood, 5 white spp, 2 small tortoiseshell, 4 southern hawkers, 5 common darter and a seemingly endless supply of migrant hawkers.

Occasionally non-passerines would catch my eye over the hedgerows, and birds of the day go to a flock of wigeon circling Tillington Flash, my first of the autumn (pictured below).  Also evident were snipe.  Several individuals were making regular flights around the reserve, but weren't being disturbed.  Instead the birds were alighting from Tillington Pasture, constantly busily feeding away amongst a large flock of canada geese.  Also here were around 100 lapwing.  A couple of kingfishers were around the reserve, and a couple of kestrel which are always nice to see.

A few swallows were busy feeding as they drifted south, a water rail was calling from the shoreline of Boundary Flash and I had a new personal highest count of 28 cormorants roosting in the tree as viewed from the bird hide.  Over the next few weeks, the number of shoveler should peak but today I could only find eleven birds.  Usually they out number every other duck in September.

 There seems to be a great supply of fruit in the hedgerows too this year, a sign of the winter to come?  Whatever comes to be, the winter visitors will no doubt appreciate the bounty.  This apple crop is from a single tree in a hedgerow favoured by redwing and fieldfare in November.  Can't think why...