Wildlife Sightings - May 2012

The month started cold and damp, then it went warmer with some drizzle, and later there were occasional snow showers. There was some sunshine at times before the mini-heat wave of the last two weeks. The last few days had showers and drizzle.

Heronry news:

Heronry activity continued. Despite the early chilly days.

There were more views of heron 'teenage' young stretching their wings moving around the branches – they were seen to be accepted by other adult herons. Eventually they would move out – flocks of these year's grown-up young (probably from the same nest) were seen flying in formation across the Play Meadow. There was squawking and screeching when juveniles returned after their explorations as they were seen by the remaining parents as intruders.

The remaining young continued to chitter away during the month. It will be a few more weeks before all these young  will be grown up and can leave the nest.

We saw a heron bringing some nesting material, in the mornings, during the month. Juveniles were seen high in the trees, chilling out, while others were seen in the horse grazing field where there were a few wet areas.

Our thanks to our keen-eyed and patient volunteer heron surveyors who counted, over the last few weeks,  35 possible  active (31 for certain and possibly 4 more) nests with a total of at least 69 young, this year. That's despite the willow vegetation beginning to obscure some of the nests. The surveyors said that they feel like grandparents after counting young for two years. So next year they will feel like great grandparents (!!).

The foliage was taking over by mid-month and by the end, the nests and juvenile sentinels were hidden.

Woodpecker news:

Green woodpecker could be heard calling on many mornings.

Four great spotted woodpecker (2 pairs) were seen waiting and squabbling at the feeding station in the mornings.  It's hard work supplying enough food  for the young – both parents have to rush away grab a morsel for themselves, grab some more and return to fill the young's hungry mouths.

Lesser spotted woodpecker was seen occasionally around the feeding station, early in the day (8-12 noon).

Spring-Summer birds

Warblers – blackcap, cetti's warbler, chiffchaff, garden warbler, grasshopper warbler, reed warbler, sedge warbler, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, willow warbler.

Other migrants: black tern, hobby, house martin, sand martin, swallow, swift.

The song thrush continued to call most mornings, together with the yaffle calls of the green woodpecker.

Cuckoos were still calling, occasionally.

A cetti's warbler was heard along the bridleway silt pool edge, early on some mornings.

Young seen:  - black-headed gull (10 young seen on FML islands), Canada goose (3 and 5 young), coot (1 and 2 young), lapwing (1 and 2 young), mallard (5 and 8 young), mute swan (2 young seen on the river), shelduck (5 young seen on Middleton Hall Pool).

Swallows were seen flying and weaving over the play meadow during the cloudy days.

A hobby was seen over Fishers Mill Lake chasing flies.

A reed bunting was singing ' zee, zee, trill' when it is usually 'zee, zee, zee-ing' or 'zee-zee, zee-zee-zu'.

A coot was seen on a nest with 2 young at heron corner for a week before moving to somewhere quieter.

A sedge warbler was seen and heard singing and jumping up and down from the bramble just before the north cross-over track on the riverside.

Our friendly, fearless robin was still eating the seed left out by visitors on the woodland outer bridge.

Some lucky visitors saw a passage osprey circling over Fishers Mill Lake on one day and then on the next day, one was seen with a fish in its claws. We had other sightings later when a osprey was having aerial discussions with gulls.

The short-eared owl (and sometimes two) was seen over the central grasslands on some days, on others at the north-end or the southern meadow.

One of our eagle-eyed nature watchers spotted a barnacle – canada goose hybrid and sent us some photographs.

On a cloudy day, a group of visitors were amazed at the low flying of some twenty swifts which were moving across the river from Dosthill and then over the lakes. They would dart towards the visitors and then suddenly veer away to avoid a collision. Their actions were amazing. Like something out of Star Wars.

Wheatear and little owl was seen by the Bodymoor Heath entrance.

The all-day bird count on the 5th reached 95 and brought in lots of donations for the bird feeding station (thanks everyone).

We often get asked what birds could be heard at the 4.30am plus dawn chorus morning. Usually, through or near a wood, it's the big eyed ones first - blackbird, robin, then wren, thrushes, warblers, finches and probably at the end a dunnock. Our intrepid and early rising guide this year (first Sunday in May) gave us this list of birds heard (from his blog below) – cuckoo, robin, song thrush, blackbird, heron, dunnock, chiffchaff, blackcap, sedge warbler, rook, pheasant, whitethroat, black-headed gull, reed warbler, willow warbler, reed bunting, garden warbler, chaffinch. All during a couple of hours walk – ending in the cafe. Read his blog for more details (below). Nature is so varied.

Wetland trail had barnacle-Canada goose hybrid, black-necked grebe, black tern, bullfinch (seen at Dosthill), buzzard, canada goose, chiffchaff, common tern, coot, cormorant, cuckoo (flying over the willow screen on dawn chorus walk morning at 5.30am and calling throughout the month), curlew, dunlin, egyptian goose, gadwall, garden warbler, grasshopper warbler, great crested grebe (seen displaying on the Dosthill lake), grey partridge, grey plover, hobby, house martin, kestrel, kingfisher (along the river and over the horse grazing field), knot, lapwing, lesser whitethroat, linnet (seen on the gorse), little egret (sometimes seen by or over the river and in the lower heronry), little grebe, little gull, little ringed plover, little stint, marsh harrier (passing through),  meadow pipit, moorhen, mute swan (on nests), osprey, oystercatcher, peregrine (once seen flying along the river), pochard, raven, red kite, red-legged partridge, redshank, reed bunting, reed warbler, ringed plover, ruff (with white collar), sand martin, sanderling, sedge warbler (flying into the air and down like a skylark, around the lake edges), shelduck, short-eared owl (often seen over the grasslands, late mornings), shoveler, skylark, sparrowhawk, swift (up to 500 seen during early morning surveys), turnstone, whimbrel (flying over and calling), whitethroat, wigeon, willow warbler, yellow wagtail (north-end).

Meadow trail had bullfinch, chiffchaff, grasshopper warbler, great spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, jay, lesser whitethroat, linnet (seen on gorse chasing and catching flies), mistle thrush, sedge warbler, sparrowhawk, swallow, willow warbler.

Woodland trail had songs and sightings of blackbird, blackcap, buzzard, cetti's warbler, chiffchaff, cuckoo (calling close-by), dunnock, goldcrest, goldfinch,  jay (on the feeders), jackdaw, kestrel, kingfisher (along the brook), long-tailed tit (along the bridleway), pheasant, reed bunting, reed warbler, rook (raucous shrieks), robin, sedge warbler, song thrush, sparrowhawk, treecreeper, wheatear, whitethroat, willow warbler, wren. Also, plenty of finches, tits, sparrows, woodpeckers by and around the feeding station and near the farm.

BUTTERFLIES: Brimstone, comma, common blue, dingy skipper (on vetch, cuckooflower and birds-foot trefoil), green-veined white, holly blue, large white, orange tip, peacock, small copper, small white, speckled wood.

DRAGONFLIES: Common blue damselfly, banded demoiselle, blue-tailed damselfly, large red damselfly ,black-tailed skimmer, brown hawker, four-spotted chaser – all on the warm days.

WILD FLOWERS AND SHRUBS:   Cowslip, cuckooflower (aka lady's-smock),  germander speedwell, gorse, meadow buttercup, ramsons, red campion, tufted vetch and still a few bluebells were all in flower.

MAMMALS:  Fox, hare, weasel, stoat were seen. Signs of otter passing through.

The warm late weather brought us lots of nature watching events. Plenty of juvenile grass snakes were under the refugia mats. Grass snakes were seen swimming in the canal or by the willow screen – phew it was hot at times. We looked out for newts at the heron corner silt pool. Terrapin young were seen at the north-end climbing a log by a pool. Cinnabar, mother shipton and silver-y moths were seen.

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