{"id":660,"date":"2010-12-01T08:09:34","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T07:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/?p=660"},"modified":"2011-07-19T08:24:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T07:24:00","slug":"november-2010-monthly-bird-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/november-2010-monthly-bird-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Nov 2010 Bird Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">NOVEMBER 2010 BIRD NOTES<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0November Highlights: Great Northern Diver, Whooper Swan, Kittiwake, Black Redstart, Bearded Tit and Snow Bunting.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An average November for species numbers at 96, but species quality was superb with Bearded Tit and Snow Bunting being new species for the site, taking our definitive list total to 223 in the 19 year life of Carsington. The male Bearded Tit was found on 1<sup>st<\/sup> in the small reedbed to the left of Sheepwash Hide. It was initially heard in disbelief, then a male was clearly seen and stayed long enough for several birders to see it before it flew high west. The Snow Bunting was found on Stones Island on 25<sup>th<\/sup> and proved elusive and mobile but at least three birders saw it.<\/p>\n<p>A Great Northern Diver was seen on 7<sup>th<\/sup>, too distant to determine age. On 12<sup>th<\/sup>, a juvenile GND, which could have been the same bird, was near the dam wall and stayed for the rest of the month. Ten Whooper Swans, including 3 juveniles, flew into Sheepwash on 7<sup>th<\/sup> and were still present at dusk. On 25<sup>th<\/sup> 2 Whooper Swans were noted off Stones Island, recorded again on 26<sup>th<\/sup> and again briefly on 29<sup>th<\/sup> before flying off west at dusk. Pink-footed Geese movements were 200 E at 0835hrs on 10<sup>th<\/sup>, 55 E at 0900hrs on 10<sup>th<\/sup> and 130 NW at 0930hrs on 18<sup>th<\/sup>. Wildfowl maximum counts were from the WeBS count on 14<sup>th<\/sup> except where stated: 38 Little Grebe on 18<sup>th<\/sup>, 58 Great Crested Grebe, 33 Cormorant, 25 Mute Swans, 1 drake Mandarin on 1<sup>st<\/sup>, 277 Wigeon, 32 Gadwall, 209 Teal, 263 Mallard, 2 Pintail, 10 Shoveler on 8<sup>th<\/sup>, 3 Red-crested Pochard on 8<sup>th<\/sup>, 62 Pochard, 578 Tufted Duck, 15 Goldeneye on 10<sup>th<\/sup>, 8 Goosander on 15<sup>th<\/sup>, 15 Moorhen and 1330 Coot.<\/p>\n<p>Waders included counts of 293 Lapwing on 14<sup>th<\/sup> and in flight flocks up to circa 400 on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>. Dunlin, Snipe and Redshank were around all month with maximums of 8 Dunlin on 12<sup>th<\/sup>, 8 Snipe on 24<sup>th<\/sup>, 5 Redshank on 24<sup>th<\/sup> and a late Common Sandpiper on 15<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>The wildfowl numbers are significantly down on recent years, which is probably due to the unusually low water levels, losing a massive surface area of water and connecting most of the islands to the shoreline, rendering them an unsafe roost. Another factor could be the winter resident Yellow-legged Gull, which has increased its diet from the Little Grebes last winter to include Tufted Duck this winter. The gull flies low terrorising most birds on the water, even Coot scuttle along the water surface in large numbers as it approaches. It operates by repeatedly landing on the selected bird, trying to drown it. On 20<sup>th<\/sup> it was seen to kill and eat a female tufted duck and the following day was seen feeding on a different tufted. An adult and a first winter Mediterranean Gull were in the roost on 2<sup>nd<\/sup>. The gull roost also held 4000 Black-headed Gull on 7<sup>th<\/sup>, 282 Common Gull on 22<sup>nd<\/sup>, 3500 Lesser Black-backed Gull on 7<sup>th<\/sup>, 30 Herring Gull on 21<sup>st<\/sup>, 6 Yellow-legged Gull on 14<sup>th<\/sup>, and a Kittiwake on 8<sup>th<\/sup>. The Kittiwake was an adult wearing colour rings, most probably being the French ringed bird seen recently around the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire areas.<\/p>\n<p>A first winter male Black Redstart was found on 18<sup>th<\/sup> at Millfields end of the dam wall. It was last seen on 22<sup>nd<\/sup> and is the third record for this site, the previous one being in November last year. Other records included 200 Woodpigeon flying south on 6<sup>th<\/sup>, a Barn Owl on 13<sup>th<\/sup> and 20<sup>th<\/sup>, a Little Owl on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, a Kingfisher on 1<sup>st<\/sup> and rest of the month, a Green Woodpecker landed on Sheepwash Hide window sill briefly on 9<sup>th<\/sup>, 10 Skylarks flew over 6<sup>th<\/sup>, 50 Meadow Pipits on 1<sup>st<\/sup>, 25 Blackbirds on 22<sup>nd<\/sup>, 75 Redwing on 29<sup>th<\/sup>, 200 Starling on 2<sup>nd<\/sup>, 18 Tree Sparrow on Sheepwash car park feeder on 28<sup>th<\/sup>, 2 Brambling on 6<sup>th<\/sup>, 40 Siskin on 1<sup>st<\/sup>, 14 Lesser Redpoll on 22<sup>nd<\/sup>, 15 Bullfinch on 29<sup>th<\/sup> and a Yellowhammer on 7<sup>th<\/sup>, 14<sup>th<\/sup> and 23<sup>rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong>96 species recorded compared with the best November ever of 104 in 2009, 94 in 2008, 98 in 2007, 97 in 2006, 97 in 2005, 95 in 2004 and 92 in 2003.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NOVEMBER 2010 BIRD NOTES \u00a0November Highlights: Great Northern Diver, Whooper Swan, Kittiwake, Black Redstart, Bearded Tit and Snow Bunting. An average November for species numbers at 96, but species quality was superb with Bearded Tit and Snow Bunting being new species for the site, taking our definitive list total to 223 in the 19 year [&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":[62,120,148,47,147],"class_list":["post-660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carsington-bird-club","tag-bearded-tit","tag-diver","tag-kittiwake","tag-snow-bunting","tag-whooper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660","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=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}