December Sightings

Winter began quietly with frosty mornings and then mild days – it was winter with a touch of spring. The lakes were upto 90% frozen in places by the third week. They thawed out later when the temperature rose to 13C.

We watched a solitary robin gripping the top of a frozen reed and  looking over the iced heronry silt pool, as large groups of blue and great tit milled around the feeders, in the background.

We noticed that goosander would move along the river, and then a few would try out the lakes, hoping to find some fish.

Also, snipe would fly off when approached but jack snipe would stay feeding until a walker or surveyor was almost on top of them.

A visitor told us of a bird of prey that flew in from the north over the heronry to the feeders, chased a great spotted woodpecker and missed it. Then it went for a blue tit and missed again. The fast-moving bird was out-manoeuvred by a mere blue tit, which quickly darted to the nearest woodland copse to eat its seed in safety.  Well done "little bluecap, little bluetee".

A bittern was seen in the reedbed at heronry corner (on the 2nd). A coot were seen jumping in the air above the reeds (on the 3rd) and water rail screams were heard. Maybe they were disturbed, perhaps by a fox or by the beaky intruder which was not reported again.

The heronry feeders were constantly in use with blue tit, chaffinch, coal tit, goldfinch, great spotted woodpecker, great tit, greenfinch, nuthatch. No one saw the lesser spotted woodpecker, this month though.

We looked out for the buzzard in horse grazing field, and flocks of goldfinch flying over the play meadow and then heronry feeder area.

We watched cormorant on the old grassland tree. Three, four or five or ten at times.

There were little egret moving from the river to the grassland muddy pools.

Flocks of lesser redpoll, goldfinch and blue tit in the willow and alder were occasionally seen from the bridleway viewpoint.

We had a smew (immature male) and a mandarin duck on Fishers Mill Lake or the mid-grassland lakes at the end of the first week. The smew moved around and was not always seen. It stayed for 3 weeks while the mandarin stayed for a few days.

On one day a visitor had sightings of 3 kingfishers. Two along the brook and one elsewhere.  We can never be sure if it is the same bird (s). Good places to look, though, are: along the brook, bridleway viewpoint, along the canal, over the pools and lakes and along the river. So find a bench and spend awhile looking. The birds do follow a regular ‘out-from-roost-and-return’ route which can cover many kilometres. One visitor saw a kingfisher fly under Fishers Mill bridge.

OTHER BIRDS:

Our hardy, clear-eyed winter WeBS surveyors  counted (including RSPB Dosthill): black-headed gull (9), canada goose (280), coot (638), cormorant (32), gadwall (37), goldeneye (10), great crested grebe (9), grey heron (3), little egret (2), little grebe (1), mallard (174), moorhen (27), mute swan (36), pochard (2), shoveler (17), teal (45), tufted duck (112), wigeon (99).

Meadow trail had barn owl (early mornings), brambling, bullfinch, fieldfare (up to 500), goldcrest, green woodpecker, jay, marsh harrier, meadow pipit, redwing (up to 100), song thrush.

Wetland trail had cetti's warbler (calling), dunlin, fieldfare, golden plover, green sandpiper, green woodpecker, greylag goose, hen harrier, kingfisher, lapwing, linnet, little egret, peregrine, pintail, lesser redpoll, redshank, redwing, reed bunting, shelduck, siskin, smew, snipe, starling, stonechat, woodcock (flying over, late afternoon) and the usual winter waterfowl.

There were large flocks of fieldfare and redwing and smaller groups of  goldfinch, rook, starling.

Woodland trail had green, and great spotted woodpecker, blackbird, cetti's warbler (calling from the bridleway viewpoint), chaffinch, goldcrest, goldfinch, grey wagtail (along the brook), kingfisher, pheasant, lesser redpoll, robin (chitt-chitt call, winter call), blue, coal, great and long-tailed tit, sparrowhawk, treecreeper, wren.

Early mornings, at the beginning of the month, a buzzard, roosting overnight in the old wood, was hunting for food at the back of the horse field.

WILD FLOWERS:   Still a few in flower – dandelion, colt's-foot, hawkbit, knapweed, nipplewort, ox-eye daisy, ragwort, toadflax, white dead-nettle, yarrow.

MAMMALS:  4 harvest nests were found by our volunteer mammal surveyors; red fox and brown hare were observed.

The month overall was mild as winter started with frosty mornings and blue skies, or cloudy days with rain then later sleet.

2011 ANNUAL HIGHLIGHTS: We opened in May and the visitors came from all over the regions. Our nature sightings came in, as the warm weather stayed.  New birds for the site's list were black swan, mandarin duck, pied flycatcher and tree pipit (with much discussion). The heronry became active with nest builders  from February onwards, but by the end of April the foliage had obscured all the active nests – all 31 of them.

The early sightings of  large red damselfly on the 12 April, and later, were records for Warks. and Staffs.  We had a returning scarce butterfly, the silver-washed fritillary. More people saw the dingy skipper butterfly and we had another sighting of brown argus butterfly.

The benches proved a hit with visitors. Lucky people saw and heard sedge warbler (in June), from the second bench, on the wetland westside track. Others had regular sightings (June-July) of a low flying common tern along the river.

 The very warm weather and visible muddy edges and banks, brought the waders in and these made the new reedbed a popular place. Species could be seen from the new reedbed bench, by those with a telescope.

 The willow screen was popular for watching protective lapwing mothers with their young, paddling nearby. Sightings of juvenile coots and tufted duck were also made there. Gaps in the reeds, by the living screen to the southern sluice, proved ideal for looking at adult and juvenile reed warbler.

The buddleia bush by the old brick bridge was a great place to spot butterflies on warm sultry days.

The woodland trail walk was a hit with early bluebell, and ramsons and the surrounding wild garlic smell. The brook bridge was the place for pooh-stick races.

We had 50 breeding birds recorded on site this summer.

With a great thank you to everyone for your nature sightings – keep them coming in.

Nigel Palmer