Sunny winter afternoon at Oak Road Lake

It has been ages since I have been at Oak Road, and there is no excuse as I love the place and is just a short drive from home. It has been a glorious winter day today, still and mild, with a wide open blue sky and a sun that definitely feels higher in the sky. 

 There a new area planted with trees, which is new to me. A Great Tit sings from atop a willow.

Although there is still some snow patches here and there, the lake is mostly ice free and there are a bunch of birds on it. A drake Pochard half sleeps by the reeds, the pair of Mute Swans with a young one from last year approach to check if I have any food, I don't but there is a dog walker who does.

 Coots and Moorhens aplenty on the lake, and an eight strong flock of Gadwall, with six males who display calling their funny grunt-whistles, and preening in front of the females. It is only after a while that I notice the drake Shoveler, it must have been feeding in the reed beds. He seemed a bit wary of the walkers around the lake and kept to the middle, often with the Gadwalls.

 I walk on the bank by the river but it is very muddy and I see nothing of interest, so I return to the lake perimeter path. A Song Thrush sung loudly from the willows by the lake. Blackbirds, Great Tits and Dunnocks by the newly planted area.

 I take a walk on Green Lane, which is extremely muddy. A commotion of Starlings; a speeding shadow of a Sparrowhawk chasing a starling. I see the Sparrowhawk again twice, flying low along the lane shortly after, and then soaring over the fields and dropping onto the wood by the lake. A pair of Stock Doves on the lane was nice. There are large puddles on the playing fields, with crows, common gulls and black-headed gulls feeding. With the sun setting it is time to go home.

Newly planted area.

Great tit

Pair of swans with young of last year on the right.

Resting drake pochard (with eye open, though!)

Is there any food coming?

Female Gadwall

Drake Gadwall

Shoveler

 Shoveler

Shoveler swimming by the ice

Moorhen

The shelf of ice gave these gulls some quiet resting space.

Bird List

1. Black-headed Gull
2. Blackbird
3. Blue Tit
4. Carrion Crow
5. Chaffinch
6. Collared Dove
7. Common Gull
8. Coot
9. Dunnock
10. Feral Pigeon
11. Gadwall
12. Goldfinch
13. Great Tit
14. Greenfinch
15. Herring Gull
16. House Sparrow
17. Long-tailed Tit
18. Magpie
19. Mallard
20. Moorhen
21. Mute Swan
22. Pochard
23. Robin
24. Shoveler
25. Song Thrush
26. Sparrowhawk
27. Starling
28. Stock Dove
29. Woodpigeon 

Frosty Burton Bushes and Beverley Westwood

After the last couple of wet days, the morning appeared bright and icy. We headed to Burton Bushes, a SSSI site which contains a small ancient woodland. The wood is mainly oak, some ash, beech and birch and much holly and hawthorn. There is little undergrowth this time of year, just a thick carpet of golden leaves covered the ground under the trees. The thick frost kept the mud mostly solid on the paths, which would have been almost completely impassable without wellies today. We lifted some lying wood, of which more later, and didn't find a lot: some flat-backed millipedes (Polydesmus sp.), some Common Striped woodlice and pygmy woodlice, a harvestman, a couple of ground beetles and a click beetle, and a tiny, really hard to see white snail, barely 2 mm in diameter.
 Blue tits we ubiquitous and very noisy, one of them performed a very passable blackbird impersonation. A couple of Goldcrests fed on a hawthorn and a seemingly lone, male Bullfinch fed on hawthorn buds on the edge of the wood. A distant Buzzard and a couple of Treecreepers in a group of trees by the golf course were highlights too.
 This winter has been windy, and its effects were apparent all around the wood. Some large trees had been blown over, opening large clearings, lifting root plates, and, by increasing the amount of wood on the ground, creating rich invertebrate habitats on their demise.
 Most of the wood's trees are mature, some starting to decay and die. Only in two areas of the wood there was some evidence of younger trees growing. Although cattle has no access to the wood, rabbits appear to be plentiful, and we wondered if there was any chance of natural regeneration of the woodland.

Click beetle for ID

An aggregation of flat-backed millipedes, Polydesmus sp.

Tiny snail for ID

The lovely and tiniest harvestman Nemastoma bimaculatum

A particularly bare area under a large oak

Pools of water on the roots of a beech.

A large (aprox. 2 cm) ground beetle, likely Pterostichus niger, found under a rotting log. Although alive, it pretended to be dead really well.

A large branch of an oak chopped up the hawthorn on the foreground clean, creating a clearing, letting the sunlight in.

A growth on a Holly trunk

As we were leaving, a Skylark did a little song flight over our heads, and then joined another one on the ground.

UPDATE 2/2/2014. Ground beetle ID thanks to Menno Schilthuizen and Martin Harvey on Twitter.

Bird list (Burton Bushes tetrad)

1. Blackbird
2. Blue Tit
3. Bullfinch
4. Buzzard
5. Carrion Crow
6. Chaffinch
7. Dunnock
8. Feral Pigeon
9. Goldcrest
10. Goldfinch
11. Great Spotted Woodpecker
12. Great Tit
13. Jackdaw
14. Magpie
15. Mistle Thrush
16. Redwing
17. Robin
18. Skylark
19. Starling
20. Treecreeper
21. Woodpigeon
22. Wren

Tophill south, and then north

I visited Tophill Low with Robert Jaques today. A chilly, breezy day with a sunny spells. We avoided the sleety cloud and once there we had a dry day. We started with the south part of the reserve, which I hadn't visited in quite some time. The day started well, with a mixed flock of Siskins and Goldfinches, and some Redwing on the poplars. There was a noisy chase of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, and we heard them drumming a couple of times more.
 Ducks were plentiful today, we ticked all the common species: Wigeon, Teal, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Shoveler, Goldeneye looking very dapper, plus a surprise drake pintail flying over O res. To top the duck list we saw the female Scaup later on D res.
 We didn't add much at Watton, but there were birds a plenty, with two Little Egrets and a flock of Curlew, first sleeping and then preening and bathing, amongst greylags, teal and wigeon.
 We went round the south of the reserve quite quickly, so we had time to do the north as well. D woods had lots of Great and Blue tits, but the chill didn't help with waiting for the brown ones, so we headed on towards North Marsh.
On the raptor front, Kestrels were aplenty we saw more than five of them around the reserve, only topped by the fantastic view of six Buzzards flying and mewing over North Marsh (with nothing else to report from there unfortunately).
 Hempholme was entertaining today. Carrion crows mobbed a Kestrel while another one hovered unperturbed nearby. A Grey Heron captured and swallowed a vole unceremoniously, and a pair of Pheasants walked by the hide. Two Kingfishers also made a brief appearance.

Little Egret

Goldeneye

Curlew and Greylags

Robin by Hempholme hide

Alkborough Flats

 Yesterday's was my first visit to this fantastic and relatively new site. Placed on north Lincolnshire, where the Trent River meets the Humber bridge, by the somewhat misleading name of Trent Falls, the reserve was born in the autumn of 2006, where the bank was breached in a managed realignment scheme allowing the Humber to flood over 400 acres of fields. Habitat management since then has created a diversity of habitats, including extensive reedbeds, lagoons and saltmarsh. It is a beautiful location, with impressive views of the landscape surrounding the site from the cliff where the village of Alkborough is perched: the Humber and Blacktoft Sands and Whitton Sands in the distance. The dead tree trunks scattered across the reedbeds make for very atmospheric views. There are also some wooded patches on the cliff near the reserve.
 A cold, a bit breezy, but sunny morning, it didn't take long to see a large group of Bearded Tits feeding on the dry reed seedheads performing their acrobatics. At some point, three Marsh Harriers were visible gliding over the reeds. We visited three hides, by far the most interesting is a tall hide overlooking the reserve, were we saw a Kingfisher, a pair of Grey Herons and a regular pass of Bearded tits and Reed Buntings. Geese, Lapwing and Golden Plover flocks fed on the grassland, occasionally spooked into flight.
A western hide facing mudflats provided good views of Teal, Shoveler, Lapwing, Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits preening, with a flock of Dunlin and Shelduck feeding on the mud.

A panel showing a map of Alkborough Flats

A male and a female Bearded Tit feeding on the reeds. At some point three males were visible.

A female feeding

View from the tall hide

View from the western hide

More information
Article at Wildlife Extra.

Site location map


Bird list

1. Bearded Tit
2. Black-headed Gull
3. Black-tailed Godwit
4. Blackbird
5. Blue Tit
6. Canada Goose
7. Carrion Crow
8. Common Gull
9. Cormorant
10. Curlew
11. Dunnock
12. Fieldfare
13. Goldcrest
14. Golden Plover
15. Goldfinch
16. Greenfinch
17. Grey Heron
18. Greylag Goose
19. Jackdaw
20. Jay
21. Kestrel
22. Kingfisher
23. Lapwing
24. Little Egret
25. Mallard
26. Marsh Harrier
27. Moorhen
28. Pheasant
29. Redshank
30. Redwing
31. Reed Bunting
32. Robin
33. Rook
34. Shelduck
35. Shoveler
36. Starling
37. Stock Dove
38. Teal
39. Water Rail
40. Woodpigeon
41. Wren 

Frosty wetlands with three geese

I had a sunny, if frosty walk around North Cave Wetlands this morning. The reserve was busier than usual, probably due to the presence of a trio of Tundra Bean Geese. I hadn't visited since late September, and the first thing I noticed is the presence of a new, almost complete, viewing terrace with a great view of Village lake, with the sun behind in the morning. New composting toilets were also in place. I walked anti-clockwise. Under the alders, a lone Goldfinch, a Song Thrush and a pair of Chaffinches fed on the path.
 In Village lake, many Wigeon, Teal and Lapwing, which shone in the low sun (above).
 As I approached the area with the Tree Sparrow nests, I spotted a Treecreeper feeding on a large willow. It was quite tricky to photograph with many branches in the way, but I managed a poor record shot. As I reached north path, three geese flew over the fields. They turned out to be the Tundra Bean geese, which landed ahead. A kind birdwatcher let me check them out with his telescope. They look very dapper with their dark head and orange markings. Two sat down while the third watched warily.
 Walking in the west path, the cold wind became very noticeable. A group of Goldfinches fed noisily on the alders, and I heard an unusual 'tee-oo!' whistle reminiscent of a bullfinch, although cheerier (later identified as a Siskin, which I didn't see). I looked closer and found three Lesser Redpolls feeding. I would have stayed longer watching their antics, but the wind spurred me onwards.
 Crosslands hide was a welcome respite from the cold. The hide traps the sun and it was balmy compared to outdoors. The water levels were very high, and a few coots, pochard and gadwall were feeding. A group of mixed gulls sat on a shallow area resting. A buzzard soared higher an higher, avoiding some crows. A large flock of Fieldfare flew over.
 I reached village lake, where I saw my first little Egret of the reserve. There was a strange absence  of geese, the only ones the Bean Geese I had seen before.
 There were many Redwing and blackbirds at Dryham lane feeding on the hawthorn berries and a few fieldfare passed over too.
 Despite the absence of geese, I managed to list 52 species.

Lesser Redpoll

the entrance to the new viewing terrace

the view from the terrace overlooking, village lake 

Grey Heron

A poor Treecreeper record shot

The distant Tundra Bean Geese on the field

This robin tried several times - unsuccessfully - to detach a hawthorn berry from its stalk.

Drake Gadwall

Little Egret

Kestrel

Song thrush

Bird list

1. Bean Goose (Tundra) 3   
2. Black-headed Gull  
3. Blackbird    
4. Blue Tit    
5. Bullfinch 1   
6. Buzzard 2   
7. Carrion Crow    
8. Chaffinch    
9. Common Gull    
10. Coot    
11. Cormorant 3 +  
12. Dunnock    
13. Feral Pigeon    
14. Fieldfare 50 +  
15. Gadwall    
16. Goldcrest 1   
17. Goldfinch    
18. Great Tit    
19. Grey Heron 1   
20. Herring Gull    
21. House Sparrow    
22. Jackdaw    
23. Kestrel 1   
24. Lapwing 100 +  
25. Lesser Redpoll 3   
26. Little Egret 1   
27. Little Grebe 1   
28. Long-tailed Tit    
29. Magpie    
30. Mallard   D - courtship and Display
31. Moorhen    
32. Mute Swan 1   
33. Pheasant    
34. Pied Wagtail (yarrellii) 1   
35. Pochard    
36. Redshank 3 +  
37. Redwing    
38. Robin    
39. Rook    
40. Shelduck 5   
41. Shoveler    
42. Siskin 1   
43. Song Thrush 1   
44. Starling    
45. Teal    
46. Tree Sparrow    
47. Treecreeper    
48. Tufted Duck    
49. Water Rail    
50. Wigeon    
51. Woodpigeon    
52. Wren