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Cofton Reservoir (1 Viewer)

Sunny May Evening

Pleasant stroll round the reservoir this evening with lots of insect life. Swallows and House Martins swooping over the water and Swifts higer overhead. Female Mute Swan still on her nest with the male getting quite agressive and having a go at some anglers :) Also two GCGs sitting on nests and two Little Grebe diving at the south end. Five Tuftys plus the usual Mallard, Coot and Moorhen. On land one Grey Wagtail at the foot of the overflow to the lower pond and the first warbler I have seen around the reservoir this summer - looks like a Chiffchaff but didn't sound like one! In addition the usual numbers of Dunnock, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit and House Sparrow (North side only), Alex
1. Grey Wagtail
2. Chiffchaff
3. Little Grebe
4. Swift
 

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Youngsters Everywhere

As I walked round the reservoir this evening it was great to see baby Moorhen, Coot and GCG. The female Mute Swan is still on her nest and in the surrounding area I saw young Starling, Robin and Long-tailed Tits. Hopefully summer might be just round the corner :)
1 Moorhen
2 Coot
3 GCG
4 GCG
5 Starling
 

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Young Birds Everywhere

We now have lots of young birds on the reservoir. One pair of GCG with two juveniles in tow, another GCG still on her nest, two Coot families, one with three fairly large chicks, the other with seven smaller ones, two fairly large Moorhen juveniles and three much smaller chicks with their parents and one female Mallard with nine small chicks. The female Mute Swan is still oh her nest. She seems to have been there for a long time so perhaps there was an unsuccessful first breeding attempt. There were also another three female Mallard and over a dozen male Mallard several starting to moult, two Little Grebes (no sign of any young), three male Tufted ducks and a male Grey Wagtail feeding on an artificial island.
In the trees around the reservoir there are lots of Blackbird, Robin, Tits (Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed), Goldfinch, Bullfinch, House Sparrows, Chaffinches, Dunnocks, Jays, Magpies, Jackdaws, Wood Pigeons, Stock Doves and on one tree a pair of Blackcaps.
Interestingly no signs of Swallows etc feeding over the water today.
 
Cygnets and a few days away from home

Just got back from a few days in & near the Farne Isles (more below) to find that we now have Cygnets on the reservoir - 5 in total. That means we have young Mute Swan, GCG, Mallard, Coot and Moorhen on the water now :) I spotted one LBBG showing some interest in the young birds but hopefully the adults will see it off!
On our "away days" I added two new species to my life list, Roseate Tern being very obliging on Inner Farne and Little Tern at Long Nanny (well guarded by National Trust wardens).
Pictures attached are
1) Swans on the Reservoir
2) Roseate Terns with and Artic for company
3) Little Tern with an Artic as a size comparison - best record shot I could get due to the distance
4) & 5) Warbler - can anyone who reads this let me know if it is a Chiffchaff or a Willow?
 

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Cofton Update - little Little Grebes !

I spent a very sticky afternoon walking around the reservoir yesterday. Since my last update young birds have continued to appear and grow but sadly the Mute Swan family disappeared. According to a neighbour the parents took the cygnets down the stepped overflow from the main reservoir to the lower pool. As there is no access to it and it is surrounded by vegetation I don't know what then happened to them after that but there has been no sign of parents or young on the main reservoir in three weeks. I assume they left because of a lack of suitable shoreline and disturbance by fishermen. Other than that one family of Coots started with 7 and now have 5 very large young, the original 9 Mallard ducklings are now down to 4 but a new batch of 5 appeared for the first time yesterday. There are two families of GCGs (2 large young, 3 smaller) and a couple of other families of Coots and Moorhens. Best news however is that I spotted a family of Little Grebes yesterday, two adults and four young. This is the first time that I have seen Little Grebe breed on the reservoir so very good news, Alex
 

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The Swan Family is back !!!

As I reported a few weeks ago there was a Mute Swan family on the reservoir but they disappeared one day. Eventual information was that the adults had walked the cygnets to small pool near Cofton Hall. They were seen there last week then suddenly earlier this week the swans were back on Cofton Reservoir with, still, five now large cygnets. They now seem very relaxed back in their original surroundings and I imagine that they have returned to give the cygnets space to learn to fly. I am wondering how common it is for swans to take their young from one water to another and back again?
 

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Goose Invasion but one cygnet down

The reservoir was invaded today by just under 200 Canada Geese. The same thing has happened the past couple of years although they are a few weeks early this year.
Sadly over-night we have gone from five cygnets to four. I can only imagine a fox or possibly a dog being responsible :-(
 
Invasion of the Canada Geese

Over 200 Canada Geese arrived on the reservoir between 6 and 7pm. Coots dived for cover, Swans retreated to the far end and Mallards seemed oblivious to the whole episode. Geese departed again at 7.30 on a flight path taking them over our garden and house !
 

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Hi Alex....a couple of quick visits in the last few weeks and it was the water that caught my eye......
The lake was low and nothing running down the (dry) steps but I noticed water in the channel at the bottom of the slope....scrambled down and saw it was coming out of the lake.So back to the top and theres a small sluice.
All this you will know of course.....but I didn't so drove around to the Cofton Richards field to see if the water was high there and it was so i assume they were filling Upper Bittell.
I had been up on the causeway the day before and noticed it was really high then.
I am assuming this is what was happening.....or maybe not.....

On another subject I saw this family on the Mill Shrub pond last week ...are they yours ?

Keith
 

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Hi Alex....a couple of quick visits in the last few weeks and it was the water that caught my eye......
The lake was low and nothing running down the (dry) steps but I noticed water in the channel at the bottom of the slope....scrambled down and saw it was coming out of the lake.So back to the top and theres a small sluice.
All this you will know of course.....but I didn't so drove around to the Cofton Richards field to see if the water was high there and it was so i assume they were filling Upper Bittell.
I had been up on the causeway the day before and noticed it was really high then.
I am assuming this is what was happening.....or maybe not.....

On another subject I saw this family on the Mill Shrub pond last week ...are they yours ?

Keith

Keith, they have been taking water out of the reservoir for over a week. My understanding is that they can take up to 1 metre at a time to top up canals etc. Hopefully the recent rain will push levels back up. One benefit of the lower levels is that we actually have a shore-line in places now.
That is not our swan family. Sadly they have lost 2 cygnets now, the second one vanished one night last week. As there are no suitable islands they spend the night on the north shore and I suspect that dogs may be responsible for the losses.
Gulls have started returning to the reservoir in the past week, we have a roost of up to 200 in the winter but they go in the summer so I assume that there are no suitable nesting spots here, Alex
 
Sounds like you might have a chance of finding a wader, especially if water levels at Bittell are rising? Worcestershire's first Curlew Sandpiper record came from Cofton. :t:
Matt
 
Return of the Goose

Smaller flock of Canada's this weekend but I think a different batch from a couple of weeks ago. In with them was a hybrid Greylag / Canada ? of some sort.
Looking back at photos, the same bird was here for a few days exactly a year ago so interesting to note the return.
 

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Three Ducks

Two interesting Mallard Hybrids (the second looks black but is basically dark green) and a female Tufty with, to me, far more white on the face than typical, on the reservoir this afternoon. Still three cygnets in the Swan family.
 

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BHGs

I went for a walk round the reservoir yesterday afternoon. If anyone has lost over a hundred Black-headed Gulls then I have found them ! A very noisy lot! I had a good look but I couldn't find anything unusual amongst them. The swan family now has only 2 cygnets but they are pretty much fully grown. Only one Mallard on the water but the usual numbers of Coot, Moorhen and GCG. A small flock of about 20 Canada Geese flew in for about 5 minutes then went on their way. Not much activity in the trees around the reservoir just the usual common species although I did see one Nuthatch, Alex
 
Very quite but a very pretty hybrid duck

Things are very quiet on and around the reservoir. Only birds seen on the water were the usual Moorhen, Coots and Mallards plus 6 Tuftys, 1 Little Grebe and about 20 BHGs. Also seen was this very pretty duck, I haven't seen one quite like it before.
Around the lake apart from the usual suspects there were a few Fieldfare and a flock of about 2 dozen Long-tailed Tits accompanied by a couple of Goldcrest.
Surprising there have been no GCGs on the water for about a month now which is very unusual as they are normally a daily occurrence.
 

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Hi Alex.....the Grebes - Great Crested and Little are being reported absent at a lot of places notably at Upton....On my last visits to Lower and Upper Bittell there have been increasing numbers of Great Cresteds but not been for about 4-5 days.

The beautiful Mallard you have could be the same one I have been seeing at the fish ponds at Bittell.

Keith :t:

Pics..is this your Mallard....
 

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Keith,
It looks very similar so probably the same bird. I think there is a fair bit of commuting between the Bittell ponds and Cofton Reservoir. particularly by ducks and Canada Geese.
On the "missing birds" front I haven't set eyes on a Siskin or a Redpoll around Cofton so far this winter. Alex
 
Tree Creepers

Between the bottom of our garden and the reservoir we saw five Treecreepers on two adjacent trees at lunch time today. I have never seen more than two of them at any one time around the reservoir before today.
 

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Return of the CGC

First GCG seen on the reservoir today for over 4 weeks. Otherwise very quiet as there was tree cutting going on.
 

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First Cofton report for a while. Nothing very exciting but the same pair of Mute Swans that bred here last year are back, a pair of GCGs have a nest, there are at least 3 Little Grebes present, 15 Tufties, several pairs of Coot and Moorhen, a few Mallard and a roving bunch of BHGs roosting here at night with around 3 LBBGs. Off of the water there are still Siskin and Redpoll to be seen and Goldcrest are in several locations, Alex
 
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