The big draw at the moment are the number of Siskins at Binn Green on both the feeders and on the Larches, where they're feeding on the cones. And the sound of such a large number of Siskins is great to hear. So how many are there up at Bnn Green ? On the bird ringing session two weeks ago we ringed 87 Siskins, so every Siskin we see without a ring is obviously giving us an idea of the total number at any one time. There won't be such a great number of Siskins all year at Binn Green; although some of these birds will be resident, a great numbers of them will be over wintering from Scotland, Wales and possibly Northern Europe / Scandinavia. Siskins are irruptive so some years there'll be greater numbers than others, influenced by food availability and the cone crop. So, it really is a spectacular sight you won't see all year round. On a seperate note, we put in a new small pond on Sunday next to Binn Green feeding area, come Monday morning there were Siskins drinking from it already.
Also see around the Binn Green area yesterday were Jay, Mistle Thrush, Carrion Crow ( gathering nesting material ). Dunnock, Blackbird, Robin, Long Tailed Tit on the fat feeders, Coal, Blue and Great Tit on the seed and peanut feeders, along with Greenfinch and Goldfinch. Plenty of Chaffinches of course as well. Binn Green is still the place to observe Treecreepers with two being seen yesterday as well as one in the plantation that runs alongside the Binn Green access road that runs down to Yeoman Hey. Moving on to this area of Dove Stone sightings from yesterday include Dipper and two Grey Wagtail and a Weasel right in the corner of Yeoman Hey reservoir on the exposed areas due to the low water levels. Also around Yeoman Hey there have been reports of Red Legged Partridge.
Elsewhere around Dove Stone yesterday there were sightings of Dipper again where the Ashway Gap spillway meets the reservoir as well as Pied Wagtail. One of the Peregrine Falcons was perched on the rock face at Dove Stone rock and we also had regular sightings throughout the weekend of Peregrine in the same area. We'll be updating the blog reguarly with reports of the Peregrines. Moving further round Dove Stone we have sightings from the weekend of male and female Bullfinch, Song Thrush and six Reed Bunting (Dove Stone reserve bird list number 45 ) in the Scots Pines along from Chew Brook and circa 50 Black Headed Gulls on the main reservoir. Also sightings of Red Grouse. Final bird to report is an Oystercatcher on the pontoon on the main res, which brings our Dove Stone reserve bird list for this year up to 46. Very generally, these birds will have wintered in a coastal / shoreline area and are returning to breeding areas from now; in previous years we've had a pair of Oystercatchers at Dove Stone so we'll be reporting back on this too as the spring and summer progresses.
Looking back on reports from February and March and through to April last year we had far more sightings of Brambling then we've had this year. About the same time / mid-March we were reporting sightings of Grey Wagtail, which can disperse during the winter, as do Meadow Pipits going to lowland areas, which we were reporting sighitngs of about this time last year.
Also taking a look back at last year, our first report of Swallows at Dove Stone was on April 12th and in the couple of weeks preceding that we were giving reports from Dove Stone via the blog on Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Curlew, so some great birds to look forwards to over the next few weeks. More soon...