Not scrubbing up too badly

Being back at work can seem like the last thing you want to do following on from Christmas and the New Year, but some jobs aren't quite so bad.  Along with the catching up with emails, colleagues and switching my brain in to gear to write 2015, I'd programmed in a few surveys to get me out of the office.  The main focus of these surveys so far has been scrub, both wanted and unwanted.  For one of the surveys I've also been fortunate enough to visit one of my favourite Trust reserves, Loynton Moss.

Loynton Moss was the first Trust reserve and part of the reserve, the 'Moss' and surrounding alder carr, is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).  Like any wetland surrounded by woodland, there is an ongoing battle to keep scrub encroachment in check.  To try and record this and help monitor the condition of the SSSI, I've been testing out a few ways technology might be able to help.  As you may have seen in earlier posts, I've tried a GPS tracking app on my iPhone but sadly this didn't produce anything I could use back in the office, despite looking pretty accurate.  So it was time to don the wellies again and head out with a real GPS.  Thankfully the results are much better, and transferable to the Trust's mapping software.

The data gathered will allow the Trust to monitor any further encroachment and keep track of what methods of control have worked best, or if some areas are more prone to being encroached than others.  You could argue that this knowledge is easily gathered by people on the ground rather than a record on a computer, but the record on the computer will allow anyone to monitor the situation and not rely on the person still being around or how accurately they remember what was a few years ago.  In other news, the snowdrops at Loynton Moss are coming along nicely, so make sure you visit soon to see the bank in full bloom.

I've also been monitoring scrub at two other Trust reserves; Rod Wood and Weag's Barn.  The object here is that all the scrub is wanted, just in the right condition.  The main challenge with both reserves to the scrubby areas is access.  The scrub at Rod Wood is at the bottom of a slippery slope and across a very wet piece of unimproved grassland.  Meanwhile, the scrub at Weag's Barn is very much on the slope, which is perhaps even more slippery and much steeper!

I'd highly recommend a visit to either Rod Wood or Weag's Barn, but you're probably best leaving it until the summer when the hay meadows are blooming, the scrub is full of breeding birds and the conditions underfoot don't leave your boots in the state they left mine!

Find more details about the reserves here:
Loynton Moss - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/loynton-moss
Rod Wood - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/rod-wood
Weag's Barn - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/weags-barn

The long way round

Today's main task was the rather mundane grocery shopping, so to spice things up I decided to go via Rickerscote Marsh and Radford Meadows on the east side of Stafford town centre.  The latter site is a Staffordshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve.

Sadly, traffic on and off the retail park prevented me (nay, persuaded me) not to venture to Radford Meadows, so instead I took a look at Just Rickerscote Marsh.  Practically the only place to view the marsh and pool is from the very end of Rickerscote Avenue, click here for a map showing where.

The pool can hold several hundred duck such as teal, wigeon, shelduck and pintail with a few waders also sometimes seen.  Today's visit seemed to compound my thoughts that there are so few ducks around this winter, other than teal.  The only birds seen were 382 teal, 6 wigeon, 8 shoveler, 2 gadwall and a handful of mallard and black-headed gulls.

The main highlight was 2 little egret in the distance over on Radford Meadows.  Hopefully we'll get an increase in winter duck numbers before the season is over!

Pottering around in the reeds again

I can't resist the chance to explore wetland habitats, especially reedbeds.  There is something magical about them.  At this time of the year they seem empty of life, the golden but dead reed stems rising out of the water.  By comparison, in spring, they are filled with life.  The song of reed warbler fills the air, water rail skulk through the vegetation raising young with the odd pig-like squeal and thousands of insects emerge.

Reedbeds, like many habitats in the UK, benefit from careful management including scrub control.  Scrub is a great habitat in its own right, essential for nesting birds and providing cover in winter, but if left unchecked it can spread throughout a reedbed, eventually replacing it leaving no room for the numerous species that rely on the habitat.

Today I was at the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's Loynton Moss nature reserve near Woodseaves to monitor the encroachment of scrub on the reedbed and bog, which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).  Rather than use out of date aerial photographs or take a series of GPS points around the reedbed, I thought I'd embrace technology and see what the Apple App Store had to offer.  I downloaded a GPS logging walking app, designed to track your favourite walks and tell you how far you've travelled, how many calories you burnt and then share with other users.  I wasn't sure how accurate the app would be, but I thought I'd give it a go, so on when the app, hit 'Begin workout' and off I set, walking the front edge of the scrub.

As you can see from the images below, the results aren't bad and the app did track even the slightest change in my position and route.  The main challenge now is to see if I can make use of this back in the office on our mapping software.

After mapping the reedbed I checked the banks at the eastern end of the coppice to see how the snowdrops were progressing.  At first glance, the plants appeared to be just tiny shoots, only just tall enough to break the surface.  But on a more sunny aspect, a few plants have already burst in to full bloom, a sign that winter won't last forever so get out and enjoy it!  The coppice and woodland held a few birds of interest including a flock of lesser redpoll feeding in the alders and a group of 6 marsh tits busy searching through the coppice for food.  I don't think I've ever had so many birds of this species together in one go.

New Year birding

A few hours on Doxey Marshes was on the agenda today to get my New Year bird list off to a great start.  Following on from the surprises of treecreeper and goldcrest a few days ago.  Sadly I only managed 45 species today, which comprised of black-headed gull, wren, mallard, teal, snipe, water rail, blue tit, long-tailed tit, magpie, kestrel, fieldfare, redwing, blackbird, kingfisher, moorhen, carrion crow, coot, goldfinch, wood pigeon, little egret, goosander, gadwall, shoveler, lesser black-backed gull, canada goose, greylag goose, barnacle goose, pied wagtail, pheasant, grey heron, starling, buzzard, stonechat, tufted duck, great tit, house sparrow, greenfinch, cormorant, great spotted woodpecker, wigeon, mute swan, lapwing, collared dove and lesser redpoll.

A careful check of the list will reveal some embarrassing omissions.  Robin.  Song thrush.  Dunnock. Could I find one of any of these species anywhere?  Why does it always fall that on the one day you want to see everything, they go and hide.  Here's to hoping that the rest of the year won't be as difficult!

There was some conciliation however in the form of lesser redpoll.  Its not too tricky to pick up a couple of birds around the scrub at the eastern end of the reserve in winter, but I was amazed to find a flock of at least 76 (counted from a photograph) flitting around above the alder trees.  This is by far my biggest total I've ever seen on the reserve, and could be one of the biggest counts ever?

The end of the year at Doxey Marshes

I've made a couple of visits to Doxey Marshes over the course of last few weeks of the year.  Winter birding can be great on the reserve, and I've managed to connect with a few good species for the reserve on my recent visits.

A particularly productive area has been the stretch of Tillington Drain which is bordered by Oxbow Pool, Cemetery Pool and the Memorial Plantation.  It has been really easy to see a water rail here so its worth scanning the edge of the drain and clumps of vegetation for these usually skulking species.  Also present here are a regular kingfisher, several teal, snipe, mallard and a few meadow pipits.  I've also seen jack snipe and cetti's warbler here in previous years.  Take a look and see what you can see!

Meanwhile the Memorial Plantation is producing many passerines including a flock of goldfinch, several greenfinch and chaffinch, numerous blackbirds and a few song thrush.  Surprises on these visits included a treecreeper and goldcrest, both difficult species to catch up with on the reserve.

On the lakes, ducks seem to be in very short supply with only 6 wigeon present along with a few shoveler, tufted duck, pochard and goosander.  In more positive news there are at least 2 kestrel present on the reserve along with 2 little egret, a stonechat and an unseasonal shelduck.

Nearby in Stafford town centre, there was evidence of the local peregrines in the form of the head of teal on the pavement.  I hope they have a good breeding season in 2015.

I'd also like to wish all my readers (not that there are many of you) a Happy New Year and good birding in 2015.

New York, New York

In early December I was fortunate enough to be back in New York for two weeks of winter birding on Long Island with my mate Pete who now lives over there.  I made two visits last year, the main trip being for spring migrants, but birding in winter is completely different.  The brilliantly coloured warblers are gone, replaced by visitors from the north; including ducks, geese and passerines.

There seems to be one rule for birding in New York.  Find a crappy looking bit of habitat and expect some amazing wildlife!  Here are a few tales from our outings.

Barrier Islands, Jones Beach and Point Lookout
Our first stop was Captree Island to look for american bittern and ducks.  On crossing over the Robert Moses Causeway, ducks were evident including several bufflehead and red-breasted merganser.  Sadly we didn't see an american bittern, but a northern harrier was great compensation, a new bird for me.  Also new were a flock of boat-tailed grackle.

Heading along Ocean Parkway, Pete spotted a snowy owl perched on a fence at the edge of the dunes, completely ignoring the passing traffic, and them seemingly ignoring it.  We couldn't not stop and appreciate the bird.

The highlight of the day, and the trip as a whole (for me at least) were two harlequin ducks which flew in to view at Point Lookout.  The two birds tarted around in front of us, eventually coming out of the water to preen on the rock groynes.  Absolutely cracking birds, and one of my top 5 lifers.  Also present on the sea were a flock of common eider, several horned grebe (aka slavonian grebe), lots of long-tailed ducks whilst distantly groups of black scoter, surf scoter and white-winged scoter flew passed.  On the seemingly lifeless beach were a flock of horned lark (shorelark), several snow bunting and a group of waders including dunlin, sanderling and a few turnstone.

Several passerines and other birds were seen during the day, amongst the notable were yellow-rumped warbler, american oystercatcher, great egret, dark-eyed junco, red-tailed hawk, common loon (great northern diver), hairy woodpecker and black-bellied plover (grey plover).

On our return journey home we called in at Lake Capri, a rather undesirable body of water fenced off from the world (as shown below) next to the Montauk Highway.  Take a closer look and you may even see the flock of lesser scaup, ruddy duck and redhead.  Crap habitat, great birds.

Southards Pond

Pete's local patch is a great chunk of habitat, somewhat contradicotry to my opening statement of finding a bit of crap habitat.  Along with the pond itself, an area of wet woodland stretches south along the Carlls River, eventually connecting up to Argyle Lake.

In the spring I had a great time at Southards Pond, seeming several new species including blackburnian warbler, magnolia warbler, hooded warbler, bufflehead, orchard oriole, northern parula and blue-headed vireo.  I struggle to summarise such a great trip to a few species.  In winter, the area isn't quite as productive but still can hold some great birds.  On this trip I finally saw my first wild hooded merganser.  There were also a couple of surprises this winter including a common yellowthroat and a orange-crowned warbler, both rather late occurrences.

Just down the river is the aforementioned Argyle Lake, a classic ornamental lake but filled with ducks.  Most common are black duck, a reoccurring theme across most water bodies.  Other species seen during my trip were hooded merganser, ring-necked duck, lesser scaup, greater scaup, american wigeon, green-winged teal, mallard and gadwall.

St Charles Cemetery

A few minutes drive from 'home' is a large collection of cemeteries where a surprising collection of birds can be found.  The area of grassland attracts a flock of geese which occasionally holds something other than canada geese, whilst there is also the chance of horned lark, american pipit and american kestrel.  We were fortunate enough to see the super cute american kestrel hunting insects along the roadside.  Also present was a barnacle goose, a reasonably scarce bird in New York.

New York City

Its hard to resist visiting the city around Christmas time to see what all the fuss is about, but why not combine it with a spot of birding at the same time?  In the city is the relatively small Bryant Park, a small green space which at this time of the year hosts a ice rink and Christmas market.  This, surely, would be the least likely place to find a great bird?  Nestled away in a small planting area measure barely 5ft across from the back of a marquee to the walkway was an american woodcock, roosting under a clump of azalea.

Montauk
Perched on the very eastern tip of Long Island is Montauk and Montauk Point.  A wild and blustery landscape can hold many birds, which were sadly absent on our trip which was in preparation for an Audubon Christmas Bird Count the following weekend.  The one thing that struck me was the ease of sea watching from the point.  Simply place your scope at any angle looking at the sea and watch flocks of all three scoter, long-tailed duck, common loon and common eider flying past.  I was able to enjoy fantastic views of white-winged scoter, and finally fully appreciate the beauty of surf scoter, a species I've only ever really seen distantly of the north coast of Wales back in the UK.

Elsewhere along the coast and on the sea, birds seen included white-winged scoter, black scoter, surf scoter, purple sandpiper, common eider, common loon, razorbill and gannet.  Nearby we found a greater white-fronted goose, another reasonably scarce species for New York.

There is a staggering array of habitats around Montauk, including several woodlands offering owls and passerines, but some of the best views and variety of passerines I saw was at a feeder in a local garden.  Ten species came to the feeder in the space of a half hour including cardinal, dark-eyed junco, house finch, red-bellied woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch, mourning dove, blue jay, black-capped chickadee, white-throated sparrow and american goldfinch.

Big Reed Pond at Montauk was a great to see, a vast area of reedbed stretching down the valley.  Sadly there weren't too many birds to see, other than a virginia rail heard along the path.

The final highlight was on our return journey at Hook Pond were tundra swans (bewick's swan) have been seen.  Also present amongst the canada geese were four more greater-white fronted geese.  A cracking end to an adventurous day.

Hecksher State Park

On one of my weekends during the trip I was lucky enough to take part in an Audubon Christmas Bird Count covering Hecker State Park.  The mix of grassland, woodland and coastal marsh provide a great range of habitats for birds and other wildlife.

Along the beach and coastal marsh we saw northern harrier, common raven, american tree sparrow and swamp sparrow, whilst in the woodland were purple finch, pine siskin, golden crowned kinglet and fox sparrow.  On our return to the car park news came through of a great horned owl, sitting quietly in a tree next to a path.  Just before we departed a belted kingfisher flew over the car park.  Also in the car park was a raccoon, quite happily at home in a skip.

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