Spring is here!

Back to the 15th, and a morning spent doing some habitat works on the cyclepath at Cotham Landfill (to benefit Grizzled Skippers) gave great views of a Red Kite, which lingered most of the morning. Later that day, I called into Collingham Pits to find John Ellis watching two Black-necked Grebes - the first I've seen here since starting Patchwork Challenge in 2013. They were gone the following day. 

Black-necked Grebes

News of the Cattle Egret at Holme Pierrepont passed me by until the morning after its discovery, but being a Notts tick (not that I keep a Notts list...), I went to see it on Saturday. It was distant, and rather uninspiring. Still, I wouldn't mind finding one at Collingham. 

Cattle Egret (left)

Cattle Egret (left)

Over the weekend, the patch produced the first LRP (and my first proper spring migrant) of the year on the 18th on Mons Pool, along with 7 grounded Pink-feet in the field by the conveyor outfall. The following day I bagged 4 Sand Martins on Ferry Lane Lake (having dipped one there the day before), whilst the there were now 4 LRPs on Mons. It proved to be a good day for Patchwork Challenge, with my first patch Peregrine and Woodcock of the year, the latter flushed out of the woodland at Meering. 

LRP

Pinkies

Pinkie

 Today, and two Avocets were on the Silt Lagoon at Collingham, with 15 Sand Martins on Ferry Lane Lake. Earlier, driving through Southwell I encountered 11 Waxwings feeding in a cotoneaster adjacent to Palmers Court; always nice to find. 

The end of February and the beginning of March

Over the last couple of weeks I've not managed much birding, for various reasons. My last patch visit of February was on the 21st, when I bagged 6 Eurasian White-fronted Geese on Smithy Marsh, viewed from Meering. The following weekend I was in London (Ring-necked Parakeets), and this weekend I did manage a bit of birding, despite having my parents to stay. A work visit to King's Mill Reservoir allowed me to jam in on 13 Waxwings which briefly showed up near the Mill Adventure Base, dropping down to feed on rosehips before being disturbed (by some people filling up bird feeders, oblivious to their presence) and flying East.

I popped into Collingham on the way home on Friday, getting my first Pintail of the year, with a pair on Mons Pool. I couldn't get out yesterday, which was a shame as Mark Dawson had a littoralis Rock Pipit, of which there was no sign today, but 2 Green Sands were new for the year; in addition, 2 redhead Smew remained on Ferry Lane Lake, and the long-staying Black-wit remained on Mons Pool. 

Glauc again

A quick look at Cotham Landfill en route to a site visit at Thoroton produced the juvenile Glaucous Gull again this morning; I located it in record time, but then lost it in the melee and couldn't relocate it, so no picture. I was a bit disappointed not to pick out anything else of note - I know an adult Caspian Gull has been seen here on occasion, so that would've been nice. Not even a Yellow-leg today. 

Arriving at Thoroton, I was greeted by 7 Waxwings dropping down into a garden next to the main road, although there was no sign of them when I returned to my car 45 minutes later. I then had to call in at Saxondale, where a Crossbill flew over calling heading east.

Gulls in the snow

Snow makes normal places look spectacular, and even Cotham landfill looked rather wonderful this morning; I'd taken some time off in lieu of working yesterday and wondered up the cyclepath from Cotham village, with the aim of looking for white-wingers. Shortly after I arrived, a juvenile Glaucous Gull showed itself briefly, before providing some better views. It was a rather dark bird - definitely different from the one at the start of December (the last time I managed a visit). The only other gull of note was a single Lesser Black-back among the Herrings and Great Black-backs. 

A snowy Cotham Landfill

Juvenile Glaucous Gull at Cotham Landfill

As I was watching the gulls, two guys with cameras walked past and told me they just seen eight 'owls' a short distance away. I went and had a look as these were doubtlessly LEOs, but  couldn't find them. All was not lost however, as an unmistakable ringing call alerted me to 11 Waxwings in trees next to the solar farm field just to the north of the landfill, with a covey of 7 Grey Partridge in the next field and a sumptuous male Bullfinch in the snowy scrub.

Some of the 11 Waxwings near Cotham Landfill

I returned for another look at the gulls, but by now the snow was falling quite thickly; I managed to pick the Glauc out again, and amused myself for a few minutes by watching some of the gulls snapping at passing snowflakes as they loafed on the side of the landfill, before deciding that I wasn't going to find a Kumlien's Gull today...

The cyclepath near Cotham Landfill

Bearded Twits

The Bearded Twits - myself, Carl Cornish, Jason Reece and Sandra Denham - were the winning team in last night's Notts Birdwatchers Christmas quiz, fighting off opposition that included a team from Leicester who came second. With just half a point between us by the penultimate round, our score of 86 out of 100 in the ID round finally saw us finish ten points clear. It was very satisfying to reclaim the trophy after a two year gap...

After getting home late, I had a late start this morning, which got me 2 Waxwings flying over my garden whilst I was feeding my chickens - nice!

Gulls come good

I'd been looking forward to my trip out this morning to look for gulls at Cotham Landfill, and I'd lined up access with a local farmer (who I play hockey with) to the fields to the east of the landfill site where the gulls have been loafing recently. However, they weren't there when I arrived - typical! One group was sat in the field immediately east of the landfill next to the road, but it's impossible to stop here safely, and access on foot would have disturbed them. There were some more in a field to the south, but they were largely obscured. Not a good start.

Viewing the landfill from the Sustrans cyclepath with runs past the site initially didn't look much more promising - there simply weren't many gulls. Fortunately, a bulldozer fired up for 10 minutes and spread some rubbish around, which suddenly brought the gulls in. Although for much of the time the majority were out of site behind a ridge (and there weren't huge numbers), they eventually co-operated and I was able to pick out a juvenile Glaucous Gull which suddenly made my efforts worthwhile. I'd left my digiscoping adaptor in the car, so the pictures I took were handheld and are particularly bad, but you get the idea...

 

Juvenile Glaucous Gull at Cotham Landfill

 

I couldn't find anything else unusual amongst the Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, not even a Yellow-leg, but did have a single Waxwing land in the hedge next to me briefly (before it flew off north) and there were 7 Siskin and 3 Lesser Redpoll in the alders on the restored landfill to the west, plus lots of Redwing and Fieldfare in the area.

More Waxwings

Today was WeBS count day, so I spent the morning at Girton Pits. It was a gorgeous late autumn day, with a clear blue sky, rich autumn colours, and a frosty ground. There was nothing unusual amongst the wildfowl, although the Tufted Duck count was relatively high at 655, and there were single Green Sandpiper on the Sailing Lake and Little Egret on Spalford Pit.

Best, however, was a party of at least 17 Waxwings along Trent Lane, next to the horse paddock. Once again, they were a bit against the light which made photography difficult, although were cracking through my scope! They spent most of their time perched up in an ash, with some of them dropping down to take hawthorn berries, before they flew off west with some Fieldfares (and it appeared there may actually have been up to 20).



Waxwing at Girton Pits

Waxwings at Girton Pits

About 20 minutes later, 14 Waxwings flew south; they may have been part of the earlier group, but were on a pretty determined north-south track and I heard them calling from some distance away - I suspect they may well have been different birds.

This afternoon, Amy wanted to go for a walk, and didn't take much persuading that we could combine this with a visit to Langford Lowfields for the Starling roost. Neither of us was disappointed. I've no idea how many birds were involved, but it was thousands, and the noise of their wings overhead, and their incredible chattering once in the roost, was brilliant. The afternoon was topped off with a hunting Barn Owl, a single flyover Waxwing, and a singing Cetti's Warbler.

Starlings

Starlings

A great finish to a good weekend.

Waxwing double-whammy!

The plan this morning was to have a quick scout round Collingham and Besthorpe to look for big white herons (see yesterday's post), and then do the gulls at Cotham. However, there seemed to be lots of birds around, and I ran out of time for any gulling!

At Collingham, yesterday's Dunlin had been joined by a second, and there were still 6 Redshank present, and the drake Pintail. Moving on to Mons Pool, there was a large group of Snipe on the 'scrape' - repeated counting eventally got their numbers up to 58.

Part of the group of 58 Snipe at Mons Pool

There were also two Little Egrets present, and a colour-ringed Cormorant bearing a yellow ring marked Z87 (or possible ZB7?) - I'll follow this up, but I imagine it's another bird from Rutland Water (see this post).

Colour-ringed Cormorant

I then heard a familiar call coming from the top of an ash tree  in the hedge along the southern boundary of the site - 5 Waxwings! Unfortunately, they couldn't have been more against the light if they'd tried, so I could only manage some pretty poor record shots - but great birds to catch up with at last! I watched then for about five minutes, around 9.50am, before they flew off north. A short time later a Crossbill flew over north as well.

Waxwing at Mons Pool

I then had a second Waxwing encounter in the afternoon - my hockey match at the Magnus School in Newark had just started, when 7 Waxwings flew in and landed in some trees next to the pitch - a bit of a distraction when playing striker!