Wildlife sightings for November 2012
This is a monthly summary so if you want more recent nature sightings please click on the recent sightings tag on the RSPB Middleton Lakes web page.
Contractors are still on site, working on the eastside (river), and have already created some great scrapes, ledges and slopes which could be seen when the water level was low. Pumping is still in operation, keeping the water levels in the pools low for digger operations. Recent flooding has increased the need for more pumping.
Access to the northern lakes is possible at times, along the canalside (western) track but will be closed if diggers are moving. There is no circular route to the eastside and river, so a return journey is required to see birds on the river. The eastside (river) track is blocked off beyond Fishers Mill lake and the new reedbed.
You will need wellies for walking as the mud and water is ankle deep in places.
Weatherwise, it was a wet start, with occasional days of late autumn sunshine. The bridleway, wetland trails and the river were flooded in the 3rd and 4th week, after local flood warnings. The canal was flooded. Days after we saw blue skies, and the water levels receded.
Birds over the site:
The big event was the arrival and stay of the white rumped sandpiper and later the long-tailed duck.
A pair of wrens were seen on a clump of floating grass on the the canal by the bridge.
Flocks of starling (50, 100s, 1000s and bigger), rook, jackdaw, lapwing, linnet with passage fieldfare, redwing.
There were also passage groups of waxwings reported, moving over the site from Dosthill, along the canal and bridleway and around the car park, seen by the lucky few.
One or two herons were seen in the heronry, standing on branches or moving down to the lower pools.
A pair (or three) of great spotted woodpeckers were flying between the feeders, the nearby old oak tree and other trees.
Our hardy, all-weather keen winter volunteer WeBS surveyors counted, mid-month, (including RSPB Dosthill): black-headed gull (27), Canada goose (24), coot (351), cormorant (24), gadwall (133), goldeneye (8), great crested grebe (13), grey heron (7), greylag goose (2), lapwing (80), little egret (3), little grebe (2), mallard (140), moorhen (23), mute swan (70), pochard (14), redshank (1), shoveler (52), teal (81), tufted duck (216), water rail (2), wigeon (136).
Meadow trail had blackbird, fieldfare, jay, linnet, long-tailed tit, redpoll, redwing, robin, sparrowhawk.
Wetland trail also had blackbird, buzzard, Cetti's warbler, dunlin, fieldfare, goldeneye (on the river), goosander (on the river), green sandpiper, kestrel, kingfisher, lapwing, little grebe (on the river), linnet, long-tailed duck, redwing, redshank, reed bunting, robin, shelduck, sparrowhawk, starling, stonechat, waxwing, white rumped sandpiper (first seen on 13th and last seen on the 19th).
Play meadow, car park, woodland edge trail (and canal) had barn owl (along the canal), blackbird, brambling (on the feeders), buzzard, Cetti's warbler (by the silt pool), grey heron, jackdaw, rook, finches and tits, jackdaw, jay, nuthatch, pheasant, raven, robin, sparrowhawk, tawny owl (calling over the play meadow), water rail (seen under the feeders and heard along the bridleway-silt pool area), waxwing, woodcock (along the bridlepath), wren.
With a great thank you to everyone for your nature sightings – keep them coming in. You can use the car-park sightings board, phone or email. Contact details are on the maps – a copy of which can be downloaded from the RSPB Middleton Lakes internet page and also available in the car-park.
Compiled by Nigel Palmer