{"id":653,"date":"2011-03-01T08:01:54","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T07:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/?p=653"},"modified":"2011-07-19T08:23:01","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T07:23:01","slug":"february-2011-monthly-bird-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/february-2011-monthly-bird-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Feb 2011 Bird Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">FEBRUARY 2011 BIRD NOTES<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00a0<\/span>February Highlights: Great Northern Divers, Brent Goose, Egyptian Goose, Smew, Red Kite and Caspian Gull.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A month of mainly grey cloud and mist but it brought in a bit of interest with two geese species and achieved an overall species sum of 90. Some of the breeding waders returned and most of the wintering wildfowl had moved on by the end of the month, all of which is usual. Water levels went up significantly during the last week and all islands now have water around them.<\/p>\n<p>Last month\u2019s 3 juvenile Great Northern Divers were seen together up to 20<sup>th<\/sup> at least, 1 was seen flying off northwest on 26<sup>th<\/sup> and 2 were still present on 28<sup>th<\/sup>. Little Grebe numbers are at a serious low with a maximum of only 3 individuals found. The Yellow-legged Gull with an appetite for Little Grebe must be to blame, hopefully some birds have escaped to other waters. There were 4 Pink-footed Geese with the Canadas on 3<sup>rd<\/sup>, a dark bellied Brent Goose on 8<sup>th<\/sup> at Sheepwash, and 2 Egyptian Geese turned up at the Wildlife Centre on 10<sup>th<\/sup>. Egyptian Geese are now probably resident in the south of the county and have recently bred. Significant counts for February included 31 Great Crested Grebe on 10<sup>th<\/sup>, 33 Barnacle Geese on 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 3 Shelduck on 17<sup>th<\/sup>, 55 Wigeon on 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 102 Teal on 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 106 Mallard on 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 4 Pintail on 11<sup>th<\/sup>, 2 Shoveler on 24<sup>th<\/sup>, 285 Tufted Duck on 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 35 Goldeneye on 2<sup>nd<\/sup>, 1 female Smew from 1<sup>st<\/sup> to 10<sup>th<\/sup>, 2 Goosander on 1<sup>st<\/sup> and 171 Coot on 13<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>A Red Kite was seen heading north on 1<sup>st<\/sup> and 3 Common Buzzards were in the air on 14<sup>th<\/sup> and 24<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Oystercatchers have been returning and claiming their breeding islands and totalled 7 by 17<sup>th<\/sup> and the Sheepwash area bird bearing a bar-code leg ring had returned by 20<sup>th<\/sup>. The early morning Lapwing roost in front of the Sailing Club held 308 birds on 20<sup>th<\/sup> and 1 Dunlin was seen occasionally from 8<sup>th<\/sup> and 2 on 28<sup>th<\/sup>. Curlew passage became busy towards the end of the month with 9 northeast on 23<sup>rd<\/sup> and 12 on 24<sup>th<\/sup>. There were 5 Redshank on site from 8<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>The gull roost has been difficult to count due to poor visibility and birds being widely spread but was estimated at 6000 birds on 16<sup>th<\/sup>, safely containing at least 4000 Black-headed Gulls. Other counts were 525 Common Gulls on 28<sup>th<\/sup>, 2 Herring Gulls on 16<sup>th<\/sup>, an adult Yellow-legged Gull all month, an adult Caspian Gull on 21<sup>st<\/sup> and 43 Great Black-backed Gulls at dawn on Sheepwash Spit on 17<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>A Stock Dove was noted on 4<sup>th<\/sup> and 14 Collared Dove were around the Ranger Base on 8<sup>th<\/sup>. Gull watchers from Sheepwash Hide were treated to a Barn Owl hunting on 11<sup>th<\/sup>, 14<sup>th<\/sup> and 16<sup>th<\/sup>. A Kingfisher was seen on 6<sup>th<\/sup> and on other dates at various locations including Millfields, Wildlife Centre and Sheepwash. Other sightings were; 2 Skylark over on 11<sup>th<\/sup> and 14<sup>th<\/sup>, 50 Redwing on 10<sup>th<\/sup>, 4 Mistle Thrush on 25<sup>th<\/sup> and 3 singing on 22<sup>nd<\/sup>, 4 Willow Tit on the Wildlife Centre feeder on 2<sup>nd<\/sup>, 180 Jackdaw on 8<sup>th<\/sup>, 40 Rook on the dam fields on 9<sup>th<\/sup>, 12 Tree Sparrow and 8 Brambling on the Wildlife Centre feeder on 4<sup>th<\/sup>, a Linnet flying over on 9<sup>th<\/sup> and 23<sup>rd<\/sup> and 5 Lesser Redpoll at Lane End on 3<sup>rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong>90 Species this month compared with 87 in Feb 2010, 86 in 2009, 86 in 2008, 88 in 2007, 89 in 2006 and 90 in 2005.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FEBRUARY 2011 BIRD NOTES \u00a0February Highlights: Great Northern Divers, Brent Goose, Egyptian Goose, Smew, Red Kite and Caspian Gull. A month of mainly grey cloud and mist but it brought in a bit of interest with two geese species and achieved an overall species sum of 90. Some of the breeding waders returned and most [&hellip;]<\/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":[53,152,120,151,149,29,46],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carsington-bird-club","tag-brent-goose","tag-caspian-gull","tag-diver","tag-egyptian-goose","tag-gnd","tag-red-kite","tag-smew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","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=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}