Old Green Eyes

The sound of happy visitors!

The Carsington Aren't Birds Brilliant events continue their success, and I was on duty twice this week.
We had some pleasant weekend winter sunshine on the Sunday and how the crowds flocked in. Somewhere in the region of 600! Plenty of adults and delightfully plenty of kids too, several very eager to use our scopes. The technique I've developed is to encourage the children to describe the bird they're viewing so that I might identify the species. 'It's a big goose like bird, lots of black on its head and neck, and a bit of white on its face', that sort of procedure. They're usually very good at it, and happy to be told so!

Tuesday was quieter due to the horrendous weather and the onset of the new school term. Walkers and a handful of caravan enthusiasts made up the visitor numbers, both arriving at the centre for the indoor heating more than the birds, but I'll wager they were warmed by both.

As for the birdlife, the Great Northern Diver is still an enigmatic and elusive presence, while the regular Peregrine sets pulses racing. We're low on waders with odd Redshanks joining the skittish flock of 200-300 Lapwing. The treat of the week was the very quiet afternoon when we volunteers were able to scoot down the opposite reaches of the reservoir to view a pair of roosting Tawny Owls. Talk about childlike excitement, I found myself saying, "I saw it blink!". Oh you really can't beat a good view of a true wild owl.

The girlfriend shot the above video at the end of Sunday's event. We'd lately had a conversation over whether any of the British species of birds are ugly, and I confess, I nominated the Cormorant. That prehistoric appearance they have, they're closer to be to dinosaurs than Blue Tits, as if evolution scarcely finished the job on these birds. Sure the green shine of their plumage can be attractive in good light, but really, where was nature's artistic flair? With that said they are fascinating birds, skilled hunters of fish that will coordinate in teams of a dozen or more, and their always entertaining, if clumsy, courtship dance owes something to David Brent
Do they devastate fish numbers on inland waters? Sometimes, in isolated cases, but not at all often. Ask a fisherman and they will tell you Cormorant eat 1 kilo of fish per day, ask a birdwatcher and their answer will be half that. The truth? It probably lies somewhere in between. Therein begins an argument any conservationist would be brave to venture into. Instead, here's another marvellous Youtube video, this time we're watching the famous Li River fishermen, who've found a mutually agreeable coexistence with their Cormorants. Beautiful stuff.

Back at Carsington, in front of the Wildlife Centre Mallards were mating, while Coots built a nest and fiercely defending a territory. Roll on spring, the birds are ready!

General Update

It may be cold outside at the moment, still the ABB days go well at Carsington. Tuesday was all about the schools really, with three classes through and genuine wide-eyed excitement from plenty of them. Who knew primary school aged girls could get so excited about Lapwings? It's great!
If you're a birder, go on, give volunteering a go!

43 species from the Wildlife Centre on Tuesday, then a slightly above average 50 on Sunday, means we always have something to show people. Highlights have perhaps been the Siskin with at least ten birds around. Two Dunlin, Snipe and Redshank keep things interesting wader-wise, and for the raptors Peregrine, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel do well for the side. A few other species moving around too, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Treecreeper notable visitors at our end of the big water.
Duck (mainly Tufted and Wigeon) and Lapwing numbers are down though, more than halved in the last few weeks. Perhaps they are dispersing to smaller local sites.

The only personal disappointment is not being able to reach the other end of the reservoir before dark once the hubbub has died down. A Ring-billed Gull is regularly coming in to roost on one specific island, reported at 15:30 practically everyday, a sure thing all the way from North America.
Ah well, stumbling down the paths in the twilight I did pick up a Tawny Owl swooping down onto the prey in a field nearby a known roosting tree. Rare sight of a common, if secretive, bird, so I'm happy.

Feed the Birds Day

The Jackdaw Roost?

Yesterday's events went well, Carsington again, this time Aren't Birds Brilliant x Feed the Birds Day, so all very busy and records broken for the number of names and addresses going into our visitor book. The girlfriend did a spot on job catching folks before they could leave the Wildlife Centre. She's the friendliest person in the world, you'd be a cold cold person to tell her you're not interested.

Bird-wise, highlight of the day had to be the Red-necked Grebe early on. It showed well for a while, even sailed close to a Dabchick for the ultimate comparsion and confirmation. Shame then that it was pushed away so early by a fisherman's boat, as it was never again seen for the rest of the day. Later I read a peeved comment in the log book of a hide further around the water noting how a number of fisherman had forced everything up the other end of the water. I'd feel uncomfortable about complaining though, the Severn Trent rangers do such a good job otherwise. It is the way of life that we should share reservoirs with other interests.

The other top notch bird was the Peregrine, with a spectacular display in front of the centre. First it sat sedately atop a distant electricity pylon, surveying the scene, and then action, the hunt. Off it took, all wildfowl scattered for dear life, and in came the Peregrine all muscle and streamlines, first stoop for a Lapwing - a miss, second for a Coot on the water - another miss, and back to the pylon. I kick myself now, but it was lunch break and I needed the loo. Of course, I come back later and learn it took a probable Teal right off the island in front. Damn!
Again, back to the pylon went the Peregrine to devour its catch, where we could show visitors the grizzly aftermath. The falcon is a steady show, at the moment you'll see one most days, and I'm glad because it's a good bird to talk to visitors about - fastest animal on earth and all that. One boy utterly agog at the 200mph stuff.

At the end of the day and in pouring rain, we drove to the Sheepwash car park to check up on a reported Black-necked Grebe, thinking how neat it is to say you saw 4 species of grebe in the day. To no avail (although I read one has been reported today) though, and instead we scored a Yellow-legged Gull, a 3rd-year bird - looks almost adult except it still has dirty pink legs and the black wing-tips are very large in flight - pictures below and very dark video here. Very languid it was too, lazy flight in amongst the busy flapping Black-headeds.

And the last to come in were at least 500 Jackdaw, perhaps many more, as big a flock as have ever seen, noisily commuting over Hall Wood.

Yellow-leg...

...with cormorant.

Edited to add: Seems there has been some confusion with the grebe. To confirm on my part, I'm confident we had a Red-neck in the morning - the only question was over the fairly dark bill - which could suggest an autumn Slavonian, although bird club member with us confirmed Red-neck as suggested by the heavy bill and build of the grebe. Later in the day, we also had a visitor requesting ID help on a probable Black-necked Grebe he saw at the other end of the water, which he seemed certain had no reddish/warm at all, unlike the earlier bird. Then today, we have reports of a Slav Grebe!
So how many birds at we talking about here? 1, 2 or 3? Who knows? Seems unusual for all three to turn up like that. Two? Maybe. I may now get down to the ABB event on Tuesday, check for my own peace of mind the reported Slav, should it stay, isn't the bird we had on Saturday. Moulting autumn grebes, bigger headache than you'd think!

Another ABB Day

Female Stonechat digi-video-scoped by the girlfriend.
Another briefer video.

Another fine day at Carsington, really fine actually. Is it my imagination or does weather that good normally lead to a scarcity of top birds?
The Little Owls showed for much of the ABB event, a Red-crested Pochard knocked around, beyond that Snipe were the best of it. Fortunately the bird club recently did a count and I could prattle on about the big birdtastic number of Coots (1500+ is always going to be impressive) and where they came from .

Earlier in the morning the cooler-than-cool Severn Trent rangers gave us volunteers a boat ride around the reservoir. You get a different impression of the place from the water and it was interesting to learn new things. For example, I hadn't really considered the role big reservoirs can play in flood defence, and thanks to the extensive weed and invasive non-native (but otherwise benign) mussels, the water is crystal clear!
From the boat we picked up juvenile Water Rail at the Northern tip of the reservoir, the bird bathing in shallows nearby the nascent reedbed. Now there's a big thumbs up from the avifauna for the site management if ever there was one. Also a Peregrine powered low over the water from the islands in the front of the Wildlife Centre and they are always ALWAYS enigmatic birds.

Finally, at the end of the day a quick half hour to ourselves found a Stonechat in front of the Paul Stanley Hide. It had been mis-identified as a Spotted Flycatcher by the folks already there, which I can understand as I watched it chasing flying insects from a perch atop a bush. Happily I could tell them that if anything, Stonechat are a rarer sight at Carsington as they don't breed here.

All in all, a good weekend had.

RSPB: Getting In With the Kids

I've a real success to report - my first day of volunteering with the RSPB!

My duties at the Carsington Water ABB event consisted chiefly of inviting Joe Public to peer through at the Little Owls I'd, with a little luck, been able to centre to the scopes upon. I may also impress on them the conservation work the RSPB and Severn Trent Water (must never forget to include mentioning them both apparently) do at the site and even coax them to sign up for RSPB membership and newsletters. I'm not so hot on pushing that line, it's money and details and I'm all about the birds, fortunately the other volunteers - a little older than I am and less shy - are better in that regard and we sort of naturally organised between ourselves who does what and mucked through the day well. They're pretty cool like that, I guess when you all believe what you're doing is utterly worthwhile that team cohesion is easy to come by, and being volunteers we're all grateful for one another turning up for the event. And you'd be amazed the energy some of the older volunteers can muster!

At the wildlife centre we had around 600 people through in six hours, at least 25 at any one time, so it was always busy. Mostly these were holidaying families and retirees, and I'm sure I nabbed at least a quarter of them to look at the owls. To my enormous good fortune the Little Owls showed the entire day, variously sitting in the open on fence posts and exposed tree branches in their regular spot. They look like fluffy balls, almost toy-like, yet with those enormous raptor eyes they're full of an apex predator's charisma. With such a great bird to look at we got great reactions from all who viewed. Tell me who's going to say no when asked, do you want to see an owl?
Young and old, so many said 'wow!', etc. The resident RSPB staff told me she watched a small girl skipping back to the car park gleefully telling mum and dad about the owl she'd seen. That really makes me feel good inside, the light was sparked, you know?

I'm pencilled in for one day a month, possibly two should I choose, that's all the RSPB asks of volunteers.
It is tiring because there isn't a moment's peace from dealing with a public you must approach, and for a few days I'll be seeing Little Owls every time I close my eyes. I'm happy though.

We also picked up an occasional male Redstart flitting about in the same fence posts, a good bird for the county, a good bird for any county really.

How to conclude? Oh yes, Aren't Birds Brilliant!