During the Monthly Bird Count, hundreds of Jackdaws and Rooks were seen flying over from their roost, 1,000 or more geese left their roost on the Slurry Lagoon and a flock of about 2,000 Wood Pigeons was seen on Severn/Trent Land. A Redshank was seen briefly on the Slurry Lagoon and two Little Egrets were feeding along the Ouse Dyke. PS.
Tag Archives: 2014
Barn Owl – 13th December
This evening a Barn Owl was seen hunting near the Wader Scrape and about 600 Starlings came in to roost in the Slurry Lagoon reed bed. RW.
Whooper Swan – 30th November
Late this afternoon a Whooper Swan was seen on the Slurry Lagoon. JMD.
Raven – 24th November
This afternoon a Raven paid a brief visit to the lagoons, flying over the Deep Pit before doing a u-turn and flying back the way it had come. The Starling roost contained about 4,500 birds this evening and a Water Rail dashed across the gap in front of the seat. Over 1,000 geese came in to roost on the Slurry Lagoon as it got dark. They were mainly Grey-lag with Canadas, and there was one Barnacle Goose with them. PS.
Stonechat – 5th November
This morning a male Stonechat was seen on the tall weeds between the sub-station and the Wader Scrape. There have been up to three in this area for some weeks now. The two Pintail were still resident on the Slurry Lagoon and good numbers of Redwings and Fieldfares were in evidence. PS. In the evening a Bittern was seen in the Deep Pit, flushed by the roosting Starlings. RW.
Swallow – 3rd November
This evening the Starling roost was really spectacular as about 8,500 birds came in to roost. Hundreds of corvids were flying across the site and then about 1,500 Canada and Grey-lag Geese arrived en mass on the Slurry Lagoon. As this was all going on a juvenile Swallow came in from the north and circled the lagoon a few times, as if making up its mind whether to join the Starlings or not, but then flew off to the north. A Sparrowhawk was seen three times trying to catch a Starling from the roost and a Water Rail flew across the gap in the reeds in front of the Causeway bench. PS.
Red-crested Pochard – 29th October
There were five Red-crested Pochard on the Large Gravel Pit this afternoon. In the evening the Starlings, Geese and Crows put on a spectacle with thousands of birds coming in to roost or passing over on their way to their roost sites. The roosts attracted the usual raptors with Peregrine, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard putting in an appearance and a Jack snipe was briefly seen. PS.
Golden Plover – 8th October
This evening, at about 7.30, a Barn Owl was seen, hunting along the Causeway. Later a Tawny Owl was also seen and 21 golden Plover came in to the Slurry Lagoon. Noctule and Pipistrelle were also flying overhead and detected on a bat box. RW.
Spotted Flycatcher – 2nd September
All day a Whinchat sat on the same piece of dock on the Wader Scrape, occasionally turning around or sallying forth after an insect, but always returning to the same perch. On the Causeway a Spotted Flycatcher paused briefly on the fence, dropping down, Robin-like, to catch an ant in the grass, before returning to the fence to eat it. It was a flying ant and I think the Whinchat was hunting the same prey. Black-headed Gulls were also hunting the flying ants, and so were squadrons of Migrant Hawkers. PS.
Whinchat – 31st August
This morning there was a Spotted Flycatcher in the willows at the river end of the Boundary Hedge. A Greenshank flew over the Slurry Lagoon but did not stay. In the afternoon three Whinchats spent some time feeding along the Ouse Dyke bank at the back of the Wader Scrape and the Lancaster Bomber visiting the Gedling Show flushed two Snipe from the Slurry Lagoon as it flew over the site. PS.