Birding In Staffordshire (4 Viewers)

[Rob Swift]

River Sow Meadows, Stafford.

Hi All,

a pleasant few hours around the patch this morn......(that was until i got the £600.00 phone call quote to fix my Leica APO!:eek!

Highlights:

Lapwing x 3 pairs with an encouraging 4 well grown juveniles between them.
Hobby x 1
Sparrowhawk x 1 displaying pair.
Barn Owl x 1
Wheatear x 1 ...latest spring record on the patch so far.
Reed Warbler x 9 singers
Willow Warbler x 5 singers...continuing to increase on the patch.
Sedge Warbler x 5...this is a poor count, which aligns with comments on previous posts of the last few days.
Whitethroat x 6
House Martin x 200...over the water works, also interesting to see the spiraling, swirling defence, reaction to the Hobby.
Skylark x 3 singers
...No sign of any Groppers!

Cheers

Rob :t:

 

[Gronk08]

Garden Sighting

Hi

Had a single male Siskin turn up in our garden today, we get the odd one or two but that's usually in the winter.

Is anyone else getting more "winter type species" visiting their gardens recently?

The first of the starling juv's are also starting to appear in the garden with 3 up to now being recorded.

Tim.

 

[NickPomiankowski]

Cannock Chase

12 Crossbills over Rugeley Quarry this morning and a Hobby at Wolseley Park.

 

[NickPomiankowski]

Hanchurch Woods

45 Crossbills were present today including many juveniles - looks like they've had a successful breeding season :t:

Also a cuckoo, tawny owl and a tree pipit.
Nick

 

[Adam M]

Point counts in the Churnet Yesterday produced 14 singing pied flycatchers, 5 redstarts and 2 spotted flycatcher. Also flushed a woodcock and a tawny owl.

Point counts at Coombes Valley this morning produced redstart and pied flycatcher by the pond (didn't count them all this morning, but had at least 3 redstarts and 11 pied flycatchers, but not all on the public trails), the tree pipit appears to have moved from the woodcock trail to the other woodland ride (not currently open to the public, sorry!), and a site rarity in the form of a cuckoo. The cuckoo was heard along the woodcock trail, but was audible from right down the south of the reserve, however, it was quiet from 6am onwards. A calling bird was heard at roughly this time last year for one day only, might be a case of the same again, or just an early morning visitor. Also 2 linnets in the top meadow, the woodpecker chicks sounding very well grown by the bridge, and more warblers than you can shake a stick at.

Also worth a mention is just how amazing the reserve looked in the early morning sun. The colour of the beech leaves right now is incredible as the dawn breaks upon them. If the bird song isn't enough to entice you to wake up in the early hours, then the wonder of the woodland should be.

Adam

 

[chris23565]

Point counts in the Churnet Yesterday produced 14 singing pied flycatchers, 5 redstarts and 2 spotted flycatcher. Also flushed a woodcock and a tawny owl.

Point counts at Coombes Valley this morning produced redstart and pied flycatcher by the pond (didn't count them all this morning, but had at least 3 redstarts and 11 pied flycatchers, but not all on the public trails), the tree pipit appears to have moved from the woodcock trail to the other woodland ride (not currently open to the public, sorry!), and a site rarity in the form of a cuckoo. The cuckoo was heard along the woodcock trail, but was audible from right down the south of the reserve, however, it was quiet from 6am onwards. A calling bird was heard at roughly this time last year for one day only, might be a case of the same again, or just an early morning visitor. Also 2 linnets in the top meadow, the woodpecker chicks sounding very well grown by the bridge, and more warblers than you can shake a stick at.

Also worth a mention is just how amazing the reserve looked in the early morning sun. The colour of the beech leaves right now is incredible as the dawn breaks upon them. If the bird song isn't enough to entice you to wake up in the early hours, then the wonder of the woodland should be.

Adam

Impressive counts of Pied Flys and Redstarts, any chance you can bag a few up and drop them of at Westport please, esp the Redstart, I remember going to Coombes Valley on a RSPB trip when I lived in St Helens with my parents, no doubt it's changed a lot since then but I can still remember the Pied Flycatchers and Redstarts, well worth the trip as a 13/14 yr old kid, seem to remember being impressed with so many birds in such a small reserve, esp when we were use to going to such places as Leighton Moss!

Happy days.

 

[Adam M]

Impressive counts of Pied Flys and Redstarts, any chance you can bag a few up and drop them of at Westport please, esp the Redstart, I remember going to Coombes Valley on a RSPB trip when I lived in St Helens with my parents, no doubt it's changed a lot since then but I can still remember the Pied Flycatchers and Redstarts, well worth the trip as a 13/14 yr old kid, seem to remember being impressed with so many birds in such a small reserve, esp when we were use to going to such places as Leighton Moss!

Happy days.

The Churnet is quite good as we own 4 different parts of woodland and the paths loop round in 3 of them, meaning you can hear pretty much everything in there. Sadly, at Coombes the footpaths (public footpaths) only go through a small section of the woodland; so whilst you can see/hear maybe 5-6 pied flycatchers, you won't get the counts the surveys do. Even the volunteer/staff only paths don't encompass the entire reserve, meaning the point counts won't pick up all the birds present, but the Common Bird Census done this year should.

The reserve itself totals 200ha (200 football pitches roughly, 110 at Coombes, 90 in the Churnet), so it's not that small. But the varied structure at Coombes; open meadows, hedgerows, bits of scrub, different ages of woodland, etc, means you get a good mix of birds and the quality of the habitats means you get plenty of them.

The Churnet is slightly different in that it is mainly more mature woodland, so in terms of habitat it's good for pied flycatcher and redstart, but we get very few willow warbler and garden warbler in there (fans of scrub), and no tree pipit (which obviously like open spaces in woodlands). Hopefully future work can open up the woodland in both reserves slightly, making it better for species like tree pipit, and some warblers, without taking anything away from the pied flycatchers and redstarts.

Adam

 

[Adam M]

This is probably a good chance to give this a plug http://www.rspb.org.uk/events/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-313204

The open day last year attracted over 300 people to the reserve. This year we are hoping for more, with events such as face painting, bug hunting, pond dipping, willow weaving, guided walks, and story-telling to tempt people in. The story-telling is going to be one of the main features, with the site manager keen for people to take away the message that woodlands are an amazing place where every plant, insect, bird and mammal has a story to tell about natural history.

It's free to come along, with most of the events only requesting a donation of your choosing, that's if they aren't free as well! We also have the optics team from Carsington Water displaying their range, and The Picture Book Shop in Leek selling a range of natural history books. There'll also be a BBQ (weather permitting) and other refreshments on site. Not to mention all the wildlife I keep banging my gums about :t:

It's on June 9th and starts at 10am, finishing at 4pm. Parking has been arranged in a near-by field (with mats provided to prevent anyone getting stuck if the weather turns bad), so parking should not be an issue.

Look forward to seeing some of you there.

Oh, there is also a Flickr competition running at the reserve http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/pl...blog/archive/2012/05/17/capturing-spring.aspx

No remit in terms of what we are after; your picture might be birds, it might be insects, it might be a landscape picture, it might even be your family enjoying their day on site. Whatever it is, send you entries in and whatever we feel best captures what Coombes Valley is all about, is the winner. The only rule is that it must be taken at Coombes Valley (I aren't 100% clear on any other rules regarding what time frame it has to be taken in; last 12 months or last decade, or if winning photos from previous competitions can be used, etc, but if it doesn't outline it on that link, I cant imagine it'll be an issue).

Adam

 

[ScottPetrek]

As part of the Central Rivers Bird Festival running until 27th May there are a series of walks running at sites between Burton and Tamworth, including active quarry sites where public access is not usually permitted.

See the link below to go behind the scenes and explore these quarries and discover how you can bird them from public footpaths etc in the area

http://www.centralrivers.org.uk/ind...tent&view=category&layout=blog&id=3&Itemid=23

 

[tommo17]

Evening walk around Christian Fields Nature Reserve and beyond Elmhurst in Lichfield.

Crept up on a little fox cub sleeping at the edge of a field, startled it, then I saw 4 little faces staring back at me from the hedge! Great moment!
Hobby x1 - a first for the local patch!
Kestrel x2, Buzzard x4
A startled male Pheasant
Pied Wagtail
Skylark
Blackcap, Whitethroat, Garden Warbler (heard about 5 but couldn't find any of them grrr...)
Long Tailed Tit
Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch
Song Thrush
Swift/Swallow/House Martin
Stock Dove
Rook/Jackdaw
Just for a moment thought I heard a distant Cuckoo around Tomhay Wood. I might have been dreaming.
+ the basics

 

[wolfbirder]

Red kite and raven over Bilbrook early evening today.

 

[minkstone]

Hobby over Adderleygreen 12-15.
Stu

 

[NickPomiankowski]

Hanchurch Woods

This years survey produced the following counts of singing/territorial birds:
Willow Warbler 129, Chiff 73, Blackcap 48, Whitethroat 15, Garden Warbler 33, Gropper 0, Goldcrest 16.

These were last years:
Willow Warbler 158, Chiff 62, Blackcap 55, Whitethroat 38, Garden Warbler 30, Gropper 1, Goldcrest 13

I could only find one tree pipit this year after several years of around 7+ territories

 

[Rob Swift]

Doxey Marshes AM

A good mornings birding at Doxey Marshes SWT....

Highlights:

Garganey x 1 drake....showing well on the platform scrape early on.
Greenshank x 1..dropped in mid morning
Dunlin x 1
LRP X 3
Redshank x 6...including the unusual spectacle of a pair perched up in a tree on Boundary Flash. :eek!:
Shelduck x 7
Goosander x 1
Hobby x
Common Tern x 2

Also called in at Aqualate Mere for a couple of hours...very quiet but a Hobby showed from the car park. The log book stated a Red Kite flew through early AM. Also the log book showed a Little Tern for early last week!

cheers

Rob:t:

 

[Rob Jones]

A friend of mine who lives locally is regularly getting a GSW on his feeders. interesting because it's bang in the middle of a housing estate!

 

[Rob Jones]

Nice photies btw Rob!

 

[chris23565]

This years survey produced the following counts of singing/territorial birds:
Willow Warbler 129, Chiff 73, Blackcap 48, Whitethroat 15, Garden Warbler 33, Gropper 0, Goldcrest 16.

These were last years:
Willow Warbler 158, Chiff 62, Blackcap 55, Whitethroat 38, Garden Warbler 30, Gropper 1, Goldcrest 13

I could only find one tree pipit this year after several years of around 7+ territories

As seems to be the case elsewhere a big drop in Whitethroat numbers, it makes you wonder what has happened to them this year, did they encounter problems along the migration route or problems at there winter territories, very sad to see this species decline like this in just a year, lets hope it's just a blip and things will be back to normal next year.

 

[russell toon]

As seems to be the case elsewhere a big drop in Whitethroat numbers, it makes you wonder what has happened to them this year, did they encounter problems along the migration route or problems at there winter territories, very sad to see this species decline like this in just a year, lets hope it's just a blip and things will be back to normal next year.

Whitethroats were late in at Berryhill this year the first on the 19 April ( 8 April 2011) and although a few more came in from the 24 April onwards numbers were still very low and I was thinking another big crash was on the cards. However from the 4 May onwards Whitethroats here started to rise up to better levels again, well here at least, might not be the case everywhere.
Of more concern is the large plunge in Groppers at Berryhill with only 3 birds reeling so far. There have been double figure counts in the 3 previous years with a record count of 15 reeling in 2011.

 

[deanleese]

Whitethroats were late in at Berryhill this year the first on the 19 April ( 8 April 2011) and although a few more came in from the 24 April onwards numbers were still very low and I was thinking another big crash was on the cards. However from the 4 May onwards Whitethroats here started to rise up to better levels again.
Of more concern is the large plunge in Groppers at Berryhill with only 3 birds reeling so far. There have been double figure counts in the 3 previous years with a record count of 15 reeling in 2011.

Although I have not tried to count the whitethroat numbers on Wetley Moor I feel that the numbers are significantly down on last year with as yet no grasshopper's.

To get to Berryhill from my house in Ash Bank I use a footpath through farmland to Bentilee and cross some open heath between Hethersett Walk and Norwich Road where there are two grasshopper's reeling most nights.

At another of my regular walks, Park Hall, the whitethroat and lesser whitethroat numbers seem to be healthy but again no grasshopper's... Also of note I knew of two yellowhammer nest sights at Park Hall last and previous years but have seen none there this Spring/Summer as yet.

 

[Rob Swift]

A friend of mine who lives locally is regularly getting a GSW on his feeders. interesting because it's bang in the middle of a housing estate!

Hi Rob,

this species has certainly adapted over the years, from 'just' being a woodland species. If there's a few mature trees dotted about in the estate...that's all that's needed for them to explore.

If it's part of a breeding pair, then there's a good chance it will bring the youngsters to the feeder.

cheers

Rob