{"id":651,"date":"2011-04-01T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T07:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/?p=651"},"modified":"2011-07-19T08:22:37","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T07:22:37","slug":"march-2011-monthly-bird-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/march-2011-monthly-bird-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Mar 2011 Bird Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

MARCH 2011 BIRD NOTES<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

March Highlights: Whooper Swan, \u2018Wild\u2019 Barnacle Goose, Rock Pipit, Black Redstart, Snow Bunting, and early summer migrants return.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Generally March has been a calm dry month with some good birds and good finds giving a monthly species count of 106, just below the best ever March of 107 species in 2005. The Great Northern Diver count was 2 juveniles at the start of the month, then 3 on 6th<\/sup> and 4 on 14th<\/sup> including 1 seen flying in at dusk on 14th<\/sup>. This number quickly reduced to 3, but included an adult bird not previously noted, and one was seen eating a crayfish on 28th<\/sup>. A national Whooper Swan movement northwards brought in flocks of 6 and 16 on 1st<\/sup> and 2 on 3rd<\/sup>. There was a Pink-footed Goose on Stones Island on 9th<\/sup> and 3 on 30-31st<\/sup>. A Barnacle Goose with an orange leg ring was found with the feral flock on 9th<\/sup> and stayed for the rest of the month. The leg ring letters ADZ were traced to it being ringed on 8\/2\/99 at Caerlaverock as a first year bird, so was hatched in 1998 and has been seen on the Solway most winters since. Maximum counts this month; 4 Little Grebe on 23rd<\/sup>, 38 Great Crested Grebe on 13th<\/sup>, 6 Greylag on 21st<\/sup> and 23rd<\/sup>, 36 Barnacle on 1st<\/sup>, 2 Shelduck on 20th<\/sup>, a pair of Mandarin on 21st<\/sup>, 24 Wigeon on 21st<\/sup>, 2 Gadwall on 3rd<\/sup> and 16th<\/sup>, 104 Teal on 7th<\/sup>, 81 Mallard on 13th<\/sup>, 2 Pintail on 1st<\/sup>-13th<\/sup>, 4 drake Shoveler on 13th<\/sup>, 12 Pochard on 1st<\/sup>, 270 Tufted Duck on 13th<\/sup>, 2 drake Common Scoter on 22nd<\/sup>, 15 Goldeneye on 7th<\/sup>, a drake Red-breasted Merganser on 27th<\/sup>, 3 Goosander on 28th<\/sup>, 8 Moorhen on 13th<\/sup> and 116 Coot on 13th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

A Red Kite was seen by several observers on 13th<\/sup>, 6 Common Buzzard were up over Carsington village on 11th<\/sup> and a pair of Peregrine were in flight together on 21st<\/sup>. At least 12 Oystercatchers were noted on 21st<\/sup>, many as pairs on their breeding islands. A Ringed Plover was around Stones Island on 25th<\/sup> and the first Little Ringed Plover of the year landed at Watersports on 26th<\/sup>. The remnants of the wintering Lapwing flock totalled 39 on 1st<\/sup>, 3 Dunlin were noted on 9th<\/sup> and there were 6 Snipe at the Wildlife Centre on 21st<\/sup>. Curlew were pouring through early in the month with flocks of 24 on 1st<\/sup>, 25 on 5th<\/sup>, 36 on 6th<\/sup>, 50 on 9th<\/sup> and 40 on 10th<\/sup>. At least 6 Redshank were present on 20th<\/sup> and probably all month, but spread around the site.<\/p>\n

An adult Mediterranean Gull was in the roost on 7th<\/sup>. Counts of the gull roost proved difficult due to the spread of birds across the whole water, but include 900 Black-headed Gull on 28th<\/sup>, 200 Common Gull on 6th<\/sup>, 63 Lesser Black-backed Gull on 28th<\/sup>, 4 Herring Gull mid-morning on 27th<\/sup> and 11 Great Black-backed on 1st<\/sup>. There was an adult Yellow-legged Gull on 2nd<\/sup> and 9th<\/sup>, thankfully not the little grebe killer which has not been seen since the end of February.<\/p>\n

The Barn Owl was hunting at Sheepwash again on 2nd<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup>. Good finds this month were a Rock Pipit on Sheepwash Spit on 7th<\/sup>, a female Black Redstart (fourth site record) in Wildlife Centre Creek on 29th<\/sup> and still there on 30th<\/sup> for several observers to catch up with this species, and a male Snow Bunting (second site record) on Sheepwash Spit early on 8th<\/sup>, staying only minutes but long enough for a record photograph. Spring migrant arrivals were; 6 Sand Martin on 26th<\/sup> and 25 on 30th<\/sup>, 2 Swallows on 29th<\/sup>, a male Common Redstart on 28th<\/sup>, a Blackcap on 30th<\/sup>, a Chiffchaff on 12th<\/sup> and 19 on 21st<\/sup> and a Willow Warbler on 30th<\/sup>. Other counts were; 24 Wood Pigeon on 3rd<\/sup>, 4 Great Spotted Woodpecker on 21st<\/sup>, 4 Skylark on 23rd<\/sup>, 23 Meadow Pipit on 28th<\/sup>, 23 Pied Wagtail on 11th<\/sup>, 100 Fieldfare on 28th<\/sup>, 61 Redwing on 10th<\/sup>, 160 Starling on 14th<\/sup>, 28 Tree Sparrow on 25th<\/sup>, 2 Brambling on 21st<\/sup>, 1 Linnet on 28th<\/sup>, 4 Lesser Redpoll on 16th<\/sup>, 6 Bullfinch on 7th<\/sup>, 1 Yellowhammer on 19th<\/sup> and 6 male Reed Bunting on 1st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

106 Species recorded this March compared with101 in March 2010, 102 in 2009, 104 in 2008, 95 in 2007, 100 in 2006, 107 in 2005 and 98 in 2004.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MARCH 2011 BIRD NOTES March Highlights: Whooper Swan, \u2018Wild\u2019 Barnacle Goose, Rock Pipit, Black Redstart, Snow Bunting, and early summer migrants return. Generally March has been a calm dry month with some good birds and good finds giving a monthly species count of 106, just below the best ever March of 107 species in 2005. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[142,154,153,47,147],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carsington-bird-club","tag-barnacle","tag-black-redstart","tag-rock-pipit","tag-snow-bunting","tag-whooper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}