GND

So I've been at Carsington a bit more often than normal, more Date With Nature days mainly. We're currently trying to make sure everyone has the opportunity to sign up to our Letter to the Future campaign, and let the politicians who can do so much to provide a healthy environment for future generations know just how much we all care about this stuff. If you haven't done it yet, follow this link which tells you all about it.


As ever the reservoir remains a brilliant place to be doing this work with some cracking sunsets lately and smattering of tasty birds. I regret I missed the recent Black Redstart (some small consolation that I saw the one last November) , but the Great Northern Diver is settling in now and easy to find most days.
Another juvenile bird so bang goes any theory that we get the same birds returning each year, this isn't site fidelity, Carsington is just a natural magnet for any GNDs that end up this far inland. It'll be a sad winter when we don't have one.

And because these divers are such fantastic birds, check out these Youtube videos....

Voices: Common Loon
Loon joins scuba divers

...Common Loon being the given North American name for the same species.

Then there are the surprises that happily occur while on site. Closing things up at the end of another DWN event I had a Barn Owl sail by the Wildlife Centre. In other areas of the reservoir you can expect them, especially the areas with unimproved grassland the STW rangers look after so well, so it was more than pleasant to see it comfortable enough to quarter the busier parts of the water's edge.
If it weren't for the volunteering I'd never be up and out there so regularly and I'd miss so many of these things. The rewards they are manifold.

A Birdwatch to Remember

Big day at Carsington this weekend. It began with a report of a Black Redstart (video above), by the end of it Great Northern Diver (mostly summer plumage), female Scaup and Common Scoter, and a Ring-billed Gull made for the best visit I can remember for a long time. First and last birds there lifers too (#222 & #223), and interesting birds. The RB Gull is a Carsi regular, turning up in the roost early each November staying for a few weeks and then it's off again. Must have its reasons I suppose. Bet it spends the summer somewhere like Scotland, can't really see a trans-Atlantic migration from its normal range being made every year.
The Black Redstart was a second site record, the previous one a spring bird from as far back as 1996. Charming birds, a sort of smoky delicacy in the feathers, they've a definite touch of class about them. Ours spent a lot of time on the sailing club building, picking off flies warming themselves up on the sunny side of the roof.

To add to the impressive cast earlier in the week we had a Garganey of debatable age and even gender during the RSPB's A Date With Nature event. That's how it can be when you have eclipse males around, this ostensibly female-looking just too warm coloured to be a female. Might still be on the water now.
The water is really really low on the reservoir meaning the acreage of exposed mud is enormous, good for the wintering Teal and surely alluring for any vagrant waders. Eyes peeled. The Garganey enjoys the mud too, but really ought to be in Africa already.
Yellow-legged Gull, Ravens, Buzzards, Peregrines, Goldeneye, tonnes of Tufties, Wigeon, Pochard and Coot, Snipe and other regulars make it fairly easy to notch maybe 60 species in a day visit at the moment.

Also had good numbers of Pink-footed Geese overflying the few days. Nice to be under their direct flight path between their first port of call in Lancashire and their real destination in Norfolk.

Another video of the Black Redstart, it just misses a whopping big fly there...

Great Greenshanks Batman!

Well folks, I think we can call this spring and the bird life confirms it. Chiffchaffs are everywhere, and those zipping flocks of hirundines can't be argued against. Birds do it once again, this time enriching us with the hope that very soon it'll be so much warmer outside.

I had another fabulous ABB day this week, in mostly fabulous weather, and I'll use that word again, we had some fabulous birds coming in, almost a wader bonanza in Carsington terms. Bird of the day was an unbeatable Greenshank, the site's first for a good long while. Their traditional migration route toward their breeding grounds on the moors and peatland of NW Scotland is coastal, hence the rarity in Derbyshire. Most will winter in Africa, though many also spend the cold months around the SW coast of the UK.
If one thing strikes me when I sight a Greenshank it is their beautiful daintiness, how the bird is almost too delicate. Nearest species we have to stilts, at present.

Other birds for the day included Common Sandpiper, Common Scoter (marine ducks that migrate overland between the Irish Sea and Scandinavian breeding areas at this time of year), Little Ringed Plover, the regulation pair of Little Owl, Wheatear (on the dam - real hot-spot for migrant passerines), and White Wagtail (the continental race of Pied Wagtail - look for birds with pale grey backs and very clean white flanks below the line of the wing). Almost goes without saying the Great Northern Diver remains, and now shows a hint of summer plumage on the back. Hopes are high it will turn fully before it departs - into something like this - handsome or what?

Icing on the cake, and the whole point we do the events at Carsington, was a bumper crop of membership sign-ups for the RSPB. That's win-win for everybody, for birds, for people, forever.

I have news to report that isn't so sportive. My previous entry reported on the return of the King's Mill Barn Owls, which is great, but alas I learn today their territory is imperilled. Already an area of superb hunting habitat south of their nest site has been ploughed up for commerical development, which will doubtless include the construction of a new road. The local RSPB group therefore views the long-term future for Barn Owls at the reservoir in very pessimistic terms.
My hopes rest on remembering how they surprised us by turning up, surprised is in their bizarre choice of nest site, surprised us with their breeding success, and I look forward to them surprising us again. I watched one of the birds sat on a post a yard or two from the railway tracks the other night, and for a heart-stopping moment it scarcely flinched as two trains thundered by it. Again, after all the noise had died down it was a surprise to see it calmly perched with the same simple ease it had been before the trains passed. Blaze is the word that springs to mind.

Got five mintes, why not look at the RSPB's campaigns website?

Somewhere Up There

Spot it yet?

Another ABB day as Carsington has gone by, with moderate numbers of visitors through for a windy day in February. I'm pleased that our team continues to grow, and that I can also report we are exceeding our membership target. Pure joy for all of us involved.
So you tell me you're a birdwatcher? You say you aren't yet volunteering with the RSPB or local wildlife groups? Oh heavens, you are missing out!

The birdlife is beginning to alter with the early change of seasons. The Oystercatchers have returned from their winter break on the coast. They look for all the world like painted clockwork toys, so are always a winner with visitors. Redshank, Snipe, and a couple of elusive Dunlin hint that good times for wader enthusiasts are just around the corner.

Our Peregrines failed to show, though one was noted mantling a Coot at the weekend. These raptors will now be returning to their breeding territories, indeed the Derby Cathedral female is already prospecting her nest ledge, so Carsington may lose this bird's regular presence quite soon, unless a pair take to one of the nearby quarries. We can only hope!

Our Great Northern Diver remains on site, yesterday being the occasion I've seen this most enigmatic and elusive individual for several weeks. Since the girlfriend described its shark-like features I haven't been able to shake the comparison from my head. It must be worse for the fish.

My treat for the day was taking time to pick out a Tawny Owl from the foliage of their traditional roosting tree. You can be sure they are creatures of the night because only a nocturnal species could have such a groggy appearance in the daylight, it's nothing short of comical.
The tip to finding them on a suitable a tree is to consider the time of day and the weather. In winer these birds will follow the sunlight around the tree trunk, or otherwise choose the side sheltering them from the wind. My other piece of advice; never stop searching.

So tired.

Sleek Bird

Just a brief update on yesterday's ABB event at Carsington. Top bird had to be the Great Northern Diver (which has been around since November 10th). That makes this the second successive year we've had the species present. Last winter 2 or possibly even 3 birds stayed, with GND present from November through to May. Pretty neat to have this bulky marine species. It'll have come from Iceland and in the cold half of the year really belongs around our northern coasts.
Otherwise notable were two Peregrine, as usual best seen perched on the towering electricity pylons.

Visitor numbers weren't great, but should hopefully rise at the weekend with the arrival of Christmas holidays. Memorable person of the day was the lady utterly in love with Wigeon, her genuine favourite she said. There's a Simon Barnes piece in today's Times about the duck which must go someway toward explaining why - read here.

A Lost Loon

A new tick for me, and probably a new one for lot of birders since by all accounts it's been a bumper month for Great Northern Diver across the country. This one, a first winter bird by the looks of it, was doing laps around the tower at Carsington Water. Even out of its pied adult summer plumage the diver is an immaculate creature, the delicately white-dotted back, the gleaming red-eye and large dagger bill, alas a rudimentary moment of digi-scoping sans-adapter just doesn't show it so well.

The GND has been there most of the week so word had gotten around and we happily guided four or five other birders to the rarity. You know you have a special bird when people don't even have to tell you what species they're looking for, a simple 'is it about?' is enough.

Good numbers of Wigeon around too.