Friday, August 31, 2007

A Trickle of Warblers

I haven't managed to get out to the Mill Lakes as much as I wanted to this month, so that was the agenda for this morning. It was quite windy over the Pit Tip Top at sunrise, and the first notable sighting was a large immature gull - probably Lesser Black-backed - heading north-west over my head. A male Kestrel was battling with the winds over Farmer Fox's Cow Field, and a couple of other large scruffy gulls were over too, but none that I could see well enough to identify.

At the Mill Lakes, the Reedbed Boardwalk had one, or possibly two, Bullfinch, but I was unsure of its sex as the colouring seemed to be between a typical male and female, being closer to a female. The wing bar and black crown were barely visible due to its moult. Walking on to the Peninsula, a Green Woodpecker flushed from feeding on the grass, and several small finch flocks were bobbing away from me before I had chance to get a good look.

A group of eight Gadwall [five male and three female] were together at north end of the lakes, and later I saw a few more at the far side, but they were possibly from the same group. Five Teal were lingering around the Mud Island - all of them female*. The numbers of Black-headed Gull seemed to be down on my last visit, and a count of 42 confirmed this. Amongst them in the shallows was a single Grey Heron , but a gunshot-like sound flushed everything from the north end of the lake, including the Heron.


Along the Back Ride, I had two or three more sightings of a Green Woodpecker, with two or more seen in total. Mid-way along far bank of the lake, a tit flock consisting mainly of Long-tailed Tit was moving through. Plenty of warblers were still around, including a fresh looking male Blackcap, a male Chiffchaff was seen singing, and a group of three or more Willow Warbler were calling around there too.

Back down near the Vehicle Bridge, I picked up the streaky juvenile Great Crested Grebe in tow with one of its parents again. A Grey Heron , presumably the one that had flown off in this direction earlier was on the bank opposite the Reedbed. The walk home was uneventful, but a juvenile Goldfinch at Dawson's Corner was - surprisingly, my first of the day.

* A more-recent visit showed that I may have mistakenly sexed eclipse males as females.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Father and Son Time

I took my one year-old son for a walk (push) around the woods this afternoon, to play in the park and see what was about. A male Sparrowhawk was hunting over Hanging Heath and slowly drifting towards the Pit Tip. At the Khalsa Wood I had a single Treecreeper, and a Nuthatch was knocking about in the trees. I met up for a chat with Steve - the ranger - who'd just returned from a bit of birding at the Mill Lakes, but all was quiet, except some female Pochard and a female Shoveller, which I'll be trying to get in the next few days.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Thanks for the Tip

After a recent tip-off on finding Tree Sparrow along Lamin's Lane, I planned an early walk out that way. The lane is approximately L-shaped, running from Killarney Park at the northern end to Mansfield Road at the eastern end. I get there via the north eastern side of Big Wood, where a track joins Lamin's Lane at the corner of the L. Previously, I've only covered the stretch that runs north to south, so this morning I headed along the other stretch running east to west. From the aerial photos, I know there's a small lake to the south of this stretch, in the middle of some farmer's fields. This is obviously attracting some birds to the area, as a Cormorant was circling it on and off throughout the morning. A little further down the lane, two Pied Wagtail flew over in that direction too. Numerous Barn Swallow were flying low over the adjacent fields, looping up over the hedges and heading back for more.

About three quarters of the way along the lane there's a point where a few gates lead into the surrounding fields and the hedgerows converge. One of these is a small plot sign-posted as a Gedling Caravan Club site, and although there were no caravans there, the plots were set up, as were several bird tables. It was quite a nice spot to stop, and looked good for Tree Sparrow. I could make out some small birds feeding in the scrub towards the back of the field, but they were too far away to see clearly. I didn't have to wait long for them to come closer, and they flew over my head to the hedgerow on the other side of the lane. All but one disappeared into or behind the hedge, but one conveniently perched on the top - a Tree Sparrow.

A male Yellowhammer landed in the dead tree about five meters away, but had gone before I got the camera out. Two more Tree Sparrow landed on the tarmac of the lane, but a passing car flushed them before I could get any footage. After a few more brief sightings, I walked on to the end of the lane, just to see what the area was like. There was a farm house here, and the hedgerows were too tall to see anything, but I was lucky enough to catch a Great Spotted Woodpecker, flying from trees on the far side of Mansfield Road to a large tree in a nearby garden. Heading back didn't produce anything new, except a rather confused Grey Squirrel, and my walk back through Big Wood was rather uneventful. Before walking home, I stopped briefly to look for any Barn Swallow under Alexandra Lodge, and found two having a rest.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

A Cockatoo at the Mill Lakes

After a great morning at Welbeck, I popped into the Mill Lakes to show my dad around. The weather was nice, and the park was busy with dog walkers, but at that time of day it was to be expected. There was nothing much of note, except a Mute Swan swimming whilst holding its left leg clear out of the water - possibly broken. As we were on the way out, my dad picked up on a call, which was unfamiliar to me - a cockatiel! I'd recently been told that a cockatiel had been heard or seen around the Railway Embankment. This call was coming from the trees around the Dipping Ponds, and before we managed to connect with it, it had disappeared towards the north. Just five minutes later, as we were getting in to the car, we saw a Cockatiel fly over from the direction of Broadvalley Stables and heading to the Mill Lakes - so it certainly gets about. Despite it being an escape, it was still the highlight of our visit.

Editor's note: This entry has been edited because the cockatiel was wrongly identified as another species of cockatoo in the original entry. Thanks to my dad for putting me straight on that one!

Saturday, August 04, 2007

A Bird in the Hand

This morning there was a bird ringing demonstration down by the Reedbed Boardwalk of the Mill Lakes, and I was keen to help Steve - the ranger - with setting up. However, it was also the first weekend in about six months that we were child free. The previous evening we'd been to our friends' for dinner and drinks, which meant forcing myself out of bed after just three hours' sleep, to get to the Mill Lakes before 7am.

On the way down, I stopped for a minute or two to listen to a strange 'reeling' call coming from the dense hedgerow at Orchard Corner. The bird didn't show itself, but surely it was too late in the season for a Grasshopper Warbler? Having no previous experience, all I had to go on was a recollection of the song to compare to online recordings when I got home. It was a good fit, but I'll put it down as a "possible, but unlikely" - although I can't think what else it might have been.

Steve had been at the Reedbed for a good hour already, and two 100-foot nets were already up. I'd had no previous experience of ringing, so Steve showed me how to put up the final 60-foot net along the Reedbed Boardwalk, before going through the equipment, and the routine. The weather wasn't ideal, since the wind was blowing the nets, making them more visible to the birds. The Boardwalk net was our best hope, and sure enough, by the time Steve had gone through the basics, three birds were in the net.

The first haul yielded a Chiffchaff, a Robin, and a Lesser Whitethroat. Steve extracted them from the net and bagged them, before passing the bags to me. All three required rings, and I scribed the records as Steve did all the hard work. Steve showed me how to hold the birds with the famous ringer's grip, and I was allowed to hold and release the Robin and Lesser Whitethroat - a great experience for me.

Next up was a family party of Great Tit: one adult female and three juveniles - all very determined to take a chunk of finger with them. Two had been ringed previously, including the adult. After the last was ringed, Steve insisted that I release it, thus ensuring I got a few pecks too - it looked worse than it felt, though.

As Steve went to check the Reedbed nets, I watched another Chiffchaff fly into the Boardwalk net. A further bird -possibly a Robin - also got in, but managed to free itself. Steve was back in no time, because nothing had been caught on the Reedbed - it was still too windy. The Chiffchaff had been ringed previously; in fact, last year at this same spot. As we headed back to measure and record the details, Rob - another ranger - arrived to help with the demonstration.

Several others turned up, also keen to get a close look at the birds. Steve checked the nets again and came back with an unringed juvenile Wren and an unringed Willow Tit. A further check of the nets brought us a juvenile Reed Warbler that required ringing, and whilst the rangers were answering some of the questions, another Robin flew into the Boardwalk net - a retrapped female that was ringed here prior to 2004.

After the session had finished, we were doing a final check of the nets just in time to see an adult Bullfinch flying towards it, spot it, and then backtrack into the Alder Carr. However, an adventurous juvenile from the same family party was already in the net. This was the highlight for me, because after it was ringed I was allowed to release it. It seemed quite happy to hang around, staying in my open hand for about fifteen seconds - until Steve gave it a little hurry-up nudge.

Afterwards, I had a quick walk around the lake to see if anything obvious was about. We'd already heard and seen a Green Woodpecker as it flew over the lake during the demonstration, and I didn't expect to see much at that time because the park was busy in the late morning sunshine.

At the north end of the lake, a good number of Black-headed Gull had gathered in the water, with new birds coming in to join them from the north. I did a count of 62, which is my highest count in a while, and noted the mix of moult stages; from just starting to lose the brown heads, to seemingly full winter plumage. A single adult female Teal was sat in the shallows by Mud Island - my first in recent months. I headed back home via the Broadvalley Stables route, but the only notable sighting was a male Pheasant in Big Wood School Field - probably the same one from last week.

A brilliant morning for me. Aside from seeing and handling some great birds close up, I learnt quite a bit about the ringing process, and how birds are identified, aged, and sexed. I think I was actually of some help too, and I can't wait to do it again.