Great White Egret over Clifton Pond  by Glyn Hudson

 

SUBS due

Many thanks to those who have paid their dues without a reminder. However, to those of you who have yet to pay please be aware this is the last Newsletter covered by your 2007 payment. So cheques for £3 to me please at the usual address at the bottom of the back page.

 

Many thanks

JohnE

SYSTEMATIC LIST

 

Little Grebe: Present throughout. Jerry Clough is of the opinion that there are more about than in recent years and to substantiate this he reported 12 on Church Pond alone on 9^th November and one on Coneries. There are usually a couple of birds at least on Delta Pond front and two more on the Delta on the North Path side.

Great Crested Grebe: Present throughout. The only count we have is of five birds on Beeston Pond on 16^th December.

Cormorant: Present throughout, no roost counts.

Great Bittern: Very early this year with the first bird being seen and photographed by Jerry Clough on 24^th October. Reports of up to three birds received into early January. Sometimes two or three birds showing well in late afternoon from the Delta hide.

Grey Heron: Present throughout.

GREAT WHITE EGRET: A really short stopper which was seen on and around Clifton Pond for a few minutes by very few observers on 21^st October. This may have been a bird that had previously been seen at Rutland Water. No formal record submitted but from the photo I would say that the identification is pretty conclusive.

Little Egret: Only record received was of three birds on Clifton Pond/Barton Flash between 8^th and 15^th  October.

Whooper Swan: A single bird on Clifton Pond on 25^th October.

Bewicks’ Swan: An impressive herd of 35 birds were observed on 25^th October.

Mute Swan: Present throughout and it would appear from reports that the 2007 breeding success appears to involve four or possibly five pairs of birds.

Pink-footed Goose: One on 12^th October.

Shelduck: One on Clifton Pond on 17^th December

Eurasian Wigeon: Quite a lot of records for October and November with flocks as follows – 14 on 12^th  October, 20 on 20^th, 49 on 31^st, 55 on 7^th November, 30 on 10^th, 10 on 24^th and 23 on 15^th December.

Gadwall: Present throughout. The high count was of 45 birds on Church Pond on 17^th December.

Common Teal: High count was 50 birds on Wet Marsh on 3^rd October.

Mallard: Only record received was of 8 on 16^th December. Either we aint getting them or nobody is bothering counting them!

Northern Shoveler: Not often we get records from Beeston Pond but Richard Rogers reported 17 birds there on 15^th November. High count was of 54 birds on Church Pond on 17^th December.

Pintail: A drake reported on 20^th October and presumably the same bird on Clifton Pond on 22^nd.

Red-crested Pochard: One on Church Pond on Boxing Day.

Pochard: The high counts were of 112 birds on Coneries Lagoon on 21^st December and 195 on17th December.

Tufted Duck: Few reports received with 110 on 25^th October being the high count.

Goldeneye: A female on 20^th October was the first record and numbers remained low throughout the period generally between one and four birds with a high count of 13 on 17^th December.

Common Scoter: A report concerned a party of five, one male, three females and a juv/moulting male on Clifton Pond on 9^th November.

Goosander: First report was of a single male on 10^th November. Numbers well down on previous years with 8 on Works Pond on 15^th November, 12 on 16^th November, 13 on 24^th November and 25 on 21^st December being the high counts.

Ruddy Duck: They have not yet been eradicated!! Twenty four on 21^st December being the largest concentration for some time.

Sparrowhawk: Single birds reported on several dates.

Common Buzzard: Present on other side of river throughout but only records received were of 3 birds on 8^th October, two on 14^th October and six on 6^th November.

Grey Partridge: An excellent record of 10 birds on 26^th November.

Pheasant: Two males and a female reported on the Delta on 14^th November.

Water Rail: A few records of single birds with a count of six on 15^th October being notable. Also two on Beeston Marsh on 9^th December.

Coot: Just one record received of 240 birds on 17^th November.

Golden Plover: Four on 20^th October and five on 1^st November.

Lapwing: High counts were, @200 on 3^rd October, 250 on 31^st October and 400+ on Boxing Day.

Redshank: One on Clifton Pond on 15^th October.

Dunlin: One on Clifton Pond on 21^st October.

Jack Snipe: One on 12^th October and one on 13thOctober, same bird??

Snipe: Two on 14^th and 19^th October and single bird on 20^th/21^st October, four on 31^st October and five on 3^rd November.

Common Gull: Quite a few records received including 13 on 24^th November,14 on 15^th December and 10 on 17^th December.

Great Black-backed Gull: Just one record one bird on 3^rd October.

Lesser Black-backed Gull: Just two records two on 31^st October and one on 15thDecember.

Yellow-legged Gull: An adult bird was reported on several dates.

Mediterranean Gull: One on 12^th October and an adult winter plumaged bird on 15^th October.

Common Kingfisher: Birds recorded in all three months with four being the maximum day count.

Great Spotted Woodpecker: Up to four birds recorded throughout the period with two on Beeston marsh on 16^th December.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker: One on 24^th November.

Green Woodpecker: Only three records of single birds in October and November, no December records.

Grey Wagtail: Three or four records of birds with two on any one day being the maximum.

Pied Wagtail: Surprisingly few records and all of single birds.

Skylark: Just the one record of three birds on 20^th October.

Meadow Pipit: Six on Erewash Field on 21^st December.

Stonechat: One on 3^rd November and two on Erewash Field on 21^st December.

Blackbird: No large concentrations but six birds were reported along North Path/Beeston Pond area on 16^th December.

Fieldfare: First report was of 8 on 15^th October. Again, no massive influx with a high count of 70 on 17^th December.

Redwing: Forty on 14^th and 15^th October, ten on 31^st  and five on15^th December were the only records received.

Barn Swallow: Two hirundines noted on 19^th October were probably this species. One at New Workings on 3^rd November.

Willow Tit: Not a lot of reports with five birds being the count on 3rd October.

Treecreeper: Just two reports, two on 15^th October and four on 22^nd October.

Jay: Several reports of single birds but on 25^th November two were seen and a third was heard calling in the distance.

Starling: One thousand plus were reported on 5^th October across the river near Barton in Fabis.

Cetti’s warbler: One heard from Delta hide on Boxing Day.

Blackcap: Single birds recorded on 3^rd November, 16^th November and a male at Meadow Lane Crossing on 27^th November.

Common Chiffchaff: Two on 27^th October and two on3^rd November.

Tree Sparrow: Still to be most commonly found at the hide feeders. The counts varied with several into double figures and a high count of 20 on3rd October.

Brambling: Two on 16^th November.

Siskin: First report was of two birds on27th October with two also on 1^st November followed by 10 on 1^st December, then 40 on 9^th December on Beeston Meadow. Forty were again recorded on Boxing Day in the same general area.

Lesser Redpoll: Two flew over on 15^th October to the NW. Eleven on the riverbank near Coneries Lagoon on 21^st December and one at Meadow Lane Crossing on Boxing Day.

Bullfinch: Three on 24^th November and two on 9^th &  16^th December were the only records.

Reed Bunting: A count of ten birds on 3^rd October

 

 

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Other Records

 

Butterflies & Moths

A few butterflies were on the wing late into the Autumn. Last dates as follows – clouded yellow 14^th October, small white 4^th October, small copper 21^st October, red admiral 14^th October, speckled wood 5^th October.

 

Dragons & Damsels

Last records for the year involved the expected migrant hawkers and common darters with the last hawker being reported on 14^th October and the last darter on 15^th October. There was also a record of ruddy darter on 5^th October.

The National Dragonfly Atlas Project will be launched in April 2008. The aim of this project is to update the known distribution of British dragonfly and damselfly species over the next 5 years, culminating in the publication of a new national atlas in 2013. A new national atlas is urgently required. Climate change is contributing to increasingly earlier spring emergence and change in the range of a number of our species. In addition, new species are becoming established in Britain, as demonstrated by the recent rapid spread of  Small Red-eyed Damselfly. We are living through a dynamic change in our dragonfly fauna and need to record this information, thereby providing evidence for future assessment of the impact climate change and other environmental factors are having on our dragonfly fauna.

To succeed in this ambitious project good national coverage is needed. The more volunteers that get involved, the more information on the status of our dragonfly and damselfly species can be gathered. This will not only allow the production of a high quality national atlas but also provide a good baseline of information that can be used for the future benefit of dragonfly conservation.

Can you help with recording the dragonflies and damselflies in your local area or further afield? How about Volunteering to record in one or more 10-km squares? Your local dragonfly recorder David Goddard will be able to tell you where the gaps are in your local area. Can you help fill in these gaps? Contact David if you would like to help david.goddard8@ntlworld.com

 

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Mammals

The rabbits on the Delta seem to be surviving despite the floods as fresh droppings have been seen on a few occasions. No recent water vole or otter records but a mink crossing North Path into Beeston Pond on 30^th December was an unwelcome record.

 

Other groups

Very rarely recorded are the smooth newts present on the reserve and in late October one of this species was found and photographed by Richard Rogers on the Delta. This individual caused somewhat of a controversy when the images were posted on the Notts Wildlife Internet forum with the newt being incorrectly identified as a great crested, which it was not. Nice to have a record though to prove they are still around.

 

We have not had a grass snake record for ages but I used to find them around Beeston marsh with great regularity in the nineteen sixties, maybe frog numbers are not high enough to sustain them anymore. On the subject of reptiles, following last year’s record from Erewash Meadow I will be looking to discover an adder for myself this year.

 

I have received some good fungi and invertebrate records over the last year thanks to the efforts of Richard Rogers, Inge van Leeuwen and Jerry Clough and this is most pleasing as neither of these groups have had much attention for a number of years. Thanks guys.

 

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Thanks to the following for contributions: - Steve Newman, Richard Rogers, Peter Sadler, Jane Howe, Dave Martin, Jerry Clough, Sandy Aitken, Brian Parkes, Paul Buxton, Rod Dean, Mark Speck, Nottinghamshire Birdwatchers newsletters and Iain Leach for the bittern picture & Glyn Hudson for the egret picture.

 

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Photo courtesy of Iain Leach

 

 

 

An Encounter with a bittern.

 

As we finished the work party earlier yesterday I took a turn around the Delta. Around 12:45 I visited the hide, but not having my key on me scanned the reedbed from the screens. Apart from the usual crowd of Wigeon & Mallard feeding on the Water Fern, there was a solitary Shoveler, a couple of Little Grebe, Coot and the Mute Swan family (2 adults & 2 immatures). No sign of the Bittern. However, there were a couple of blackbirds noisily working their way through the leaf litter about 10 feet from the end of the right hand screen. From time to time I had the impression that a larger bird was present as well. Then the blackbirds moved away and I could still hear rustling, so I assumed that there was probably a pheasant there. A minute or two later a large pale brown bird flew out and across to the Delta reedbed. Of course it was the Bittern, flying leisurely. It settled on the edge of the reeds, about 2 o'clock from the hide and within about 30 seconds had worked its way quite deeply into them. About five minutes later I was at the end of the Bund, looking up the length of the front of the reed bed, when I saw a Heron fly from the right directly into the same area  where I had seen the Bittern disappear earlier. Almost as soon as the Heron landed the Bittern emerged, flying much more quickly this time. It flew back across to the other (Trent) side of the pond, followed by the Heron a few seconds later. Within 30 seconds the Heron had driven it out again and this time it flew much further up the reedbed disappearing behind the Willow which was used as a perch by the Hobby.

I was well chuffed to get three flight views in such a short space of time, particularly as one was at such close range. I can only assume that the Bittern was originally feeding close to the hide. The apparently antagonistic behaviour of the Heron also seems worthy of note.

Jerry Clough

 

From reports I have received and from conversations it would appear that a lot of people have had really good views of the bitterns this year with lots of people seeing two birds.

 

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The BTO Breeding and Wintering Bird Atlas

Most birders will know that the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), in association with related organisations such as Scottish Ornithologists’ Club and BirdWatch Ireland, has produced a series of ‘Atlases’ showing the distribution and abundance of our islands’ birds. The three main reports were published in 1974 (breeding birds), 1986 (wintering birds) and 1993 (breeding birds again). These books have been used extensively by scientists and conservationists to plan and develop their work. They have been critically important in studies as diverse as the effects of climate change on bird distribution, and in developing plans to screen wild bird flocks for avian flu. Twenty years have passed since the last of these atlases and the BTO has decided that it is time for an update. This time the survey will involve both summer and winter records to give a picture of our birds at both seasons.

The Atlas will be based upon tetrads of the National Grid; a tetrad is a square of land measuring 2 km along each side. The British Isles are mapped as a series of 10 km squares, so there are 25 tetrads in each 10 km square. The BTO is asking for 8 tetrads to be surveyed from the 25 in each 10 km square. However, Nottinghamshire Birdwatchers have decided to take this opportunity to map the entire county, covering every one of the 550 tetrads. We intend to use the results as the basis for a new Birds of Nottinghamshire; the last of these was produced by Austen Dobbs as long ago as 1975. The BTO survey is planned over a four year period from 1 November 2007 to 31 July 2011, so to complete the field-work, we will have to survey about 140 tetrads each year.

There will be two parts to the field-work: ‘Timed Tetrads’ and ‘Roving Records’.

Timed Tetrads involves visiting a tetrad for two hours during Nov/Dec, Jan/Feb, Apr/May and Jun/Jul in one twelve-month. Tetrads do not have to be visited every year, once only will suffice. Each visit is to be divided into two one-hour periods, and every bird seen or heard during each hour should be counted. Thus, the four visits will take two hours each; so we are asking you to give up four mornings for every tetrad that you cover. The route through the tetrad should be designed to include a representative cross section of habitats. If you feel that your bird identification skills are enough to participate in this type of field-work, the BTO Regional Organiser would be delighted to hear from you and help you to choose one (or more!) tetrads for you to visit. Only one recorder will go to each tetrad, so you will need to liaise with her to ensure that you do not waste your time by surveying a tetrad that has already been counted. You can either contact her directly (see below) or find your own tetrad using the website www.bto.org/birdatlas.

If you are not sufficiently confident to volunteer to count birds in a tetrad, there is still plenty that you can do to help. We also need observers for ‘Roving Records’. This is much easier and, indeed, anyone (and I mean anyone) can be involved. You simply record the birds that you see when you are out for a walk (provided you know where you are on an OS map). If you are not sure about this, then why not record the birds in your garden? If you get Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robins, House Sparrows and Great Spotted Woodpeckers coming to the bird feeders in winter, then you have just got five records for the Nottinghamshire winter map. If you have Blackbirds nesting in the hedge, Blue Tits in the nest box and Robins in that old kettle in the greenhouse, then you have three breeding records for the summer map. It really is that easy! And it doesn’t matter where you live; we need inner city records just as much as those from suburbia or rural parts of the county. Every bird is a potential dot on the map.

You can print a recording form from the top of this page: there are two versions, one a PDF version the other as a Word document. The first winter season lasts from 1 November 2007 to 29 February 2008. Use the form to record the birds that visit your garden, local park, workplace or allotment this winter. Fill in the address and postcode where you have made the observations, and we can identify the tetrad for you. At the end of February, bring the form along to the next indoor meeting (or send it to me, David Parkin). I will happily send you another for the summer with details of how to record breeding birds. And if you think that we are not interested in your Robins and Blue Tits, you are very wrong; if these birds occur in a tetrad, we would rather get reports of them from 20 different people than not to get them at all. So, put the form by the kitchen window and write down each bird as you see it.

The local BTO organiser is Lynda Milner (01623 862025 or lyndamilner@hotmail.com)

The Notts Birdwatchers' co-ordinator is David Parkin (0115 9320090 or bluethroat@btinternet.com)

We plan to publish a book, based upon this field-work, showing the distribution and abundance of Nottinghamshire’s birds, hopefully by 2012. So start recording on 1 November 2007. Please remember that every record counts.

David Parkin

Conservation Officer, Nottinghamshire Birdwatchers

 

 

 

I hope some of you will get involved in this and if you visit the Nottinghamshire Birdwatchers website you can learn more and download the necessary forms.

http://www.nottsbirders.net/

THE BACK PAGE

 

WORK PARTIES

 

Extra help is always required, so if you fancy a bit of exercise and some good comradeship why not give Sandy Aitken a ring on 0115 925 7428 or have a word with Claire or Graham at the Nature Centre on 0115 972 1777.

 

BEESTON WILDLIFE GROUP

 

Indoor Meetings

All meetings are held at Trent Vale Infant School, Trent Road, Beeston Rylands from 7.30 – 9.30 p.m. Admission is £2 and includes refreshments.

 

January 21^st 2008 – Plant Folklore by Dr Patrick Harding

February 18^th – New Zealand by Martin Butler

March 10^th – World of Amphibians & Reptiles by Chris Mattison

April 7^th  - Annual General meeting

April21st – Magic of the Mountains by Gordon Gadsby

 

Outdoor Walks

The programme of monthly walks continues throughout the  winter on the following dates.

Jan 26^th 2008                    Feb 23^rd                         March 15^th                        April 26th

Meet at Barton Lane car park at 10.00 a.m. Walks usually finish around 12.30 p.m.

 

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ATTENBOROUGH NATURE CENTRE EVENTS

Sunday 17th February                                

Nest Box Week. An event to mark National Nest Box Week; there is a nest box making workshop from 10:00. Places can be booked by calling the Centre. 0115 9721777

There will also be special offers on Harrison's bird food and feeders on the day.

Introduction to the Birds of Attenborough

Another introduction to the birds of Attenborough course which might be of interest to new members. The dates are Saturday 29th March through to Saturday 17th May starting at 10:00. For further details contact the Centre.

 

A Reminder

If you see any pollution incident please call the EA Hotline – it is a freephone number 0800 807060

Stick it in your mobile!

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If you have any news or records of species other than birds, or any comment or articles for inclusion please send to: - John Ellis, 67 Springfield Avenue, Sandiacre, Nottingham, NG10 5NA or Email to jellis@trent83.freeserve.co.uk

or at work jellis@nottswt.co.uk

 

NEXT BULLETIN

Records for the next bulletin, by April 10^th 2008 please, to:-

Peter Sadler, 197 Cator Lane North, Chilwell, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 4BL