A fantastic bird

This weekend I've been fortunate enough to be involved with two very different ringing sessions, the first on Friday evening targeting a fantastic bird... woodcock!

I joined a couple of ringers from Shropshire to walk around pastureland near Market Drayton in search of the birds.  At first the 'usual' fields didn't look promising as no birds were seen, of the target species or otherwise.  Eventually we caught up with two birds feeding together in the field.  A few minutes later, the net was down and the bird was ringed, and what a stunner!

No sooner had we released the bird, Paul had found another a few hundred metres away.  Boom, net down, bird number 2 in the bag.  In all, we were out 'in the field' for 5 hours, checking 3 areas.  We ended with 7 birds, along with a bonus jack snipe, a ringing tick for Paul.

On Saturday I was leading a walk at Croxall Lakes, a Staffordshire Wildlife Trust reserve in the east of the county, next to the National Memorial Arboretum.  The walk was part of the programme of events being run buy the Tamworth local group.  Winter hasn't really produced many birds yet but the reserve held several hundred ducks, including 86 pochard and similar numbers of tufted duck.  Many teal and shoveler were present, along with a little egret, a few skylark passing overhead, a flock of around 500 lapwing and several hundred redwing and fieldfare feeding on the hawthorn berries along the railway line.

Find out more about the reserve here - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/croxall-lakes

Then on Saturday evening I was back at Belvide Reservoir with Brewood Ringers for another catch on the starling and reed bunting roost in the reedbed.  The starling roost has gradually been building over the last week, but we weren't quite prepared for the estimated 5,000 birds that eventually came in to roost through several large flocks.  In all, 43 birds were caught (including reed bunting).

Around and about

This week I've had a few days out of the office, visiting colleagues from various parts of the UK.

First I was at Potteric Carr near Doncaster, visiting colleagues as Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.  This was my first visit to the reserve, and its one I've heard loads about, driven past a few times but never visited.  This year has been exciting for the team managing the reserve as bittern and marsh harrier have bred for the first time.  The reserve is already huge, but there are plans in the near future to make it even bigger, incorporating more habitats catering for more species.

Find out more about the reserve here - http://www.ywt.org.uk/reserves/potteric-carr-nature-reserve

The following day I was in York for a training course with other colleagues from the Wildlife Trusts from around the UK.  During the day we made a lunchtime visit to the nearby Askham Bog reserve, a wetland site designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.  The reserve is home to a wide array of wetland plants including a great display royal fern, orchids and the largest colony of gingerbread sedge in England.

I'll definitely be back in the summer to experience the reserve at its best, as well as take a proper look around York itself.

Find out more about the reserve - http://www.ywt.org.uk/reserves/askham-bog-nature-reserve

The weekend bought another trip, this time to visit the BTO headquarters in Thetford, Norfolk, for the Regional Network meeting.  I act as the regional representative for the BTO in Staffordshire, helping co-ordinate the local volunteers for national surveys along with two other volunteers who run BBS (Breeding Bird Survey) and WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey).

The Nunnery is a shrine of birding information, with a library packed with every conceivable ornithological book you could wish for, and equally dazzling collection of reports from around the UK including counties and bird observatories.

It was great to meet my counterparts from other counties and hear about the exciting range of surveys that the BTO have planned for the coming years, should funding allow.  They include breeding waders, seabirds and all 5 species of owl.

One survey that is definitely taking place is the house martin survey in 2015.  If you're interested in taking part, register your interest online through the BTO's website and your details will be passed to your local organiser ahead of the survey starting in spring.

The BTO note that: "We know surprisingly little about house martins despite the fact that they breed alongside us, using our houses on which to build a nest made of hundreds of beakfuls of mud.  Critically, we do not know why this species is in rapid decline in the UK.  Currently, it is ‘Amber listed’ in the Birds of Conservation Concern listings, compiled by the UK’s leading conservation agencies.

Why survey House Martins now?  We need to discover more about house martins to help us identify why they are declining and provide scientific evidence to help inform policy decisions that could reverse the declines. The survey, over the next two years, will collect more information on population size, breeding ecology and habitat preferences, so we can begin to tackle some key questions about this eagerly awaited summer visitor."

You can find out more details on the survey here - http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/house-martin-survey

To make full use of the weekend, I stayed over night in Thetford rather than travel back home, so that I could visit Welney to see the winter swans and ducks on this brilliant Wildfowl & Wetland Trust reserve.  I approached the reserve along the A1101, passing through extensive flat farmland near the reserve where hundreds of swans can be seen feeding in the fields.  Also present was a large mixed flock of lapwing and golden plover, always a delight to see!

At the reserve itself, the main observatory (and its heating system!) were a welcome treat on a drizzly day.  Just a few feet in front of the hide, several whooper swans passed by, moving through a flock of pochard.  Several snipe were flitting back and forth between the tussocks of exposed vegetation, and a large flock of black-tailed godwits would occasionally take flight after being flushed by a sparrowhawk.

I highly recommend a visit to the reserve.  More details can be found here - http://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/welney/

One snipe, two snipe, three snipe, four...

As the title suggests today I was out with the bird survey volunteers at Doxey Marshes to complete a full snipe count of the reserve following poor conditions preventing the survey taking place on the WeBS day last week.

Strangest bird of the day was a grey heron, sadly deceased thanks to a broken tarsus which would have prevented it from being hunting.

After an extensive walk around the reserve, the morning ended with 299 snipe and a bonus 5 jack snipe.  Other birds of interest included 7 stonechat, at least 4 water rail, 4 cetti's warbler and 3 chiffchaff.  Several chiffchaff wintered on the reserve last year so it will be interesting to see if these birds hang around too, or if there are any more present of a different race.

Martin Garner has posted some interesting pictures and comments on chiffchaff on his Birding Frontiers blog.  Take a look here - http://birdingfrontiers.com/author/martingarner/

It's November already?!

Where on earth does the time go?  I can barely believe its November already, and almost time for that dreaded 'C' word...    My last post was the end of October, but thats not to say I've been sitting around doing nothing, so here is a quick resume of the past few weeks.

Sunday 2nd
Today I was back at Dosthill Park LNR in Tamworth to deliver another bird ID session for the local volunteers.  I'd tried to time the session for the arrival of winter migrants to add to the variety of species we may encounter.  Sadly the timing wasn't great as we were in a period of unseasonably warm weather and the thousands of redwing that arrived a few weeks ago appeared thin on the ground.  And as for ducks... what ducks?  Numbers just don't see to have arrived yet.

Despite the warm weather we had another great walk around this amazing local green space.  On the river, a female goosander was fishing, our first sign of winter.  No sooner had it swam around the bend, a green sandpiper took flight and flew in the same direction adding a touch of autumn.  Along with a flock of long-tailed tits passing through the woodland and the expecting nuthatch, mistle thrush and other common passerines, other highlights included a kingfisher and several small flocks of redwing passing over us.

Wednesday 5th
I've been scouting around of the last few weeks looking for a suitable location to try to catch roosting redwing.  Several birds have been roosting in the grounds of the Wolseley Centre so it seemed a logical location to try.  Sadly the catch wasn't particularly successful with just one redwing caught, but what a stunner it was.  We (Brewood Ringers) also caught several robin and blackbird, including a very nice continental race bird with a silvery edge to the feathers.

Sunday 9th

This evening we were back at Belvide Reservoir for another catch at the reed bunting and starling roost.  To make the evening even more enjoyable Colin had invited over the 'Three Shropshire-teers', the three great guys that joined us in Portugal back in October - Paul, Martin and Kevin.  It was great to catch up with the guys.  The final catch was 18 reed bunting, 7 starling and a blue tit.  We'll be back catching again in the not too distant future so keep an eye on the Brewood Ringers website and blog for more details - http://www.brewoodringers.com/

Tuesday 11th

On my way into work today I noticed a large flock of 'something' over Radford Meadows in Stafford. Intrigued I had to take a look.  Fortunately the flock was viewable from Wildwood Park helping me make a quick visit.  Across the canal from the park was a flock of around 400 lapwing, 40 wigeon, 100 teal and many mallard.  On closer inspection there were several golden plover mixed in with the lapwing.  Its certainly a sight to warm your heart on a winter day, just a shame its not really cold enough to need warming!

If you want to make a visit to the reserve to see the flocks, you can find more details here - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/radford-meadows

Wednesday 12th

I've not been to Doxey Marshes for a few weeks, but today was the day and time for another site visit to monitor the water levels around the reserve as part of the management plan.  Species seen during my visit included a few winter ducks, but certainly not the numbers I'd expect to be seeing by now.  Its just too warm!  Teal appear to be the only birds that have increased in any real number and several hundred are now present on the reserve, whilst other ducks including 15 wigeon, several tufted duck and shoveler and the usual cast of mallard.

Also present were several redwing, a few fieldfare (my first of the year for Doxey), a male goosander, 3 water rail and a stonechat.  The evening (well afternoon as it gets dark quite early now) ended watch a few hundred starling murmuring over Boundary Flash reedbed before disappearing, only to reappear over Creswell Flash reedbed as I headed for the car park.  They didn't hang around long and after a few passes, they headed back towards Boundary Flash.  It can only mean one thing, time to head to Aqualate Mere NNR to see their roost.  Apparently its currently numbering around 15,000 so has some room to grow yet!

And don't forget you can follow me on Twitter in between blog posts - https://twitter.com/ScottoftheMarsh