{"id":699,"date":"2010-03-01T08:37:23","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T07:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/?p=699"},"modified":"2011-07-19T08:38:57","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T07:38:57","slug":"feb-2010-bird-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/feb-2010-bird-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Feb 2010 Bird Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">FEBRUARY 2010 BIRD NOTES<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><strong>February Highlights: Great Northern Divers, Red-necked Grebes and Jack Snipe.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0A juvenile and an adult Great Northern Diver were present all month, quite often together at dawn and dusk. Early on 23<sup>rd<\/sup> the adult was calling while the juvenile was close by diving. As the mist cleared at 1320hrs on 15<sup>th<\/sup> a Red-necked Grebe was seen and photographed from Sheepwash and Lane End Hides and then lost to view. Searches were made by several birders and the bird was eventually relocated in Hopton Arm, in the rain and near to dusk. It was there that a second bird was noted. One bird remained in Hopton Arm, as far as the ice allowed, until 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, while the second bird was elusive, wandering as far as Millfields. Counts for February included: 27 Little Grebe on 8<sup>th<\/sup>, 41 Great Crested Grebe on 8<sup>th<\/sup>, 45 Cormorant on 15<sup>th<\/sup>, 6 Mute Swans on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, 46 Barnacle Geese on 1<sup>st<\/sup>, 5 Shelduck on 25<sup>th<\/sup>, 48 Wigeon on 28<sup>th<\/sup>, 6 Gadwall on 22<sup>nd<\/sup>, 59 Teal on 1<sup>st<\/sup>, 141 Mallard on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, 2 Pintail on 18<sup>th<\/sup> and 28<sup>th<\/sup>, 5 Shoveler on 20<sup>th<\/sup>, 2 Red-crested Pochard on 18<sup>th<\/sup>, 2 Pochard on 28<sup>th<\/sup>, 442 Tufted Duck on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, 19 Goldeneye on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, 5 Goosander on 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 5 Moorhen on 23<sup>rd<\/sup> and 401 Coot on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>. These counts were low for winter but similar to or slightly less than those in February last year demonstrating that many of the wintering wildfowl had gone by the end of the month.<\/p>\n<p>Two Sparrow Hawks were noted on 10<sup>th<\/sup>, 6 Buzzard were in the air at the same time on 10<sup>th<\/sup> and, on 1<sup>st<\/sup>, a Buzzard was perched on the cairn on Flat Island while another searched the island for food. Peregrine were noted on several days with a female on 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 1 over Hopton Arm on 16<sup>th<\/sup>, an immature on 23<sup>rd<\/sup> and 1 from Sheepwash on 28<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Oystercatchers have been returning and claiming their breeding island and, by 28<sup>th<\/sup>, numbered 10 including a pair mating on Millfields Island and the male with a bar-code leg ring returning to Flat Island and Sheepwash area. A Jacksnipe flew in to Hopton Arm on 19<sup>th<\/sup> for 2 hours and temporarily stole the red-necked grebe\u2019s show, see photograph on our website. Snipe numbers have been low this winter with just 4 recorded on 13<sup>th<\/sup> and 22<sup>nd<\/sup>. A Woodcock was flushed from the path behind Sheepwash Hide on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>. Curlew are now moving through, with the first heard on 24<sup>th<\/sup>, 2 on 27<sup>th<\/sup> and 5 on 28<sup>th<\/sup> including 3 which landed to the right of Sheepwash Hide. Redshank were seen in singles at many locations but the maximum count was only 3 on 22<sup>nd<\/sup> and 24<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>The gull roost was larger than in mid-February last year, with at least 3000 Black-headed Gulls, 550 Common Gulls and 300 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on 13<sup>th<\/sup>. The daytime resident, little grebe eating adult Yellow-legged Gull has not been recorded since 6<sup>th<\/sup>, and a heron was noted struggling to swallow a gull carcass on 16<sup>th<\/sup>!<\/p>\n<p>A roost of 60 Woodpigeon was noted at Sheepwash on 8<sup>th<\/sup> and 16<sup>th<\/sup>, a Kingfisher regularly between 14<sup>th<\/sup> and 24<sup>th<\/sup>, 3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers on 16<sup>th<\/sup>, 2 Skylark flew over on 16<sup>th<\/sup>, a singing wren on 28<sup>th<\/sup> highlighted how few were seen this month, in excess of 50 Fieldfare at Sheepwash on 16<sup>th<\/sup>, 4 Song Thrush singing on 28<sup>th<\/sup>, 8 Long-tailed Tits squeezed onto Paul Stanley feeders on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, 4 Willow Tits on 24<sup>th<\/sup>, 15 Magpie on 11<sup>th<\/sup>, 50 Jackdaw over Sheepwash on 12<sup>th<\/sup>, 6 Rooks on the dam wall fields on 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, 2 Raven on 6<sup>th<\/sup> and other dates, 4 Brambling in the Visitor Centre car park on 14<sup>th<\/sup>, 13 Siskin at Sheepwash on 15<sup>th<\/sup> and 10 Lesser Redpoll near the Wildlife Centre on 17<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong>87 Species this month compared with 86 in Feb 2009, 86 in 2008, 88 in 2007, 89 in 2006 and 90 in 2005.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FEBRUARY 2010 BIRD NOTES \u00a0February Highlights: Great Northern Divers, Red-necked Grebes and Jack Snipe. \u00a0A juvenile and an adult Great Northern Diver were present all month, quite often together at dawn and dusk. Early on 23rd the adult was calling while the juvenile was close by diving. As the mist cleared at 1320hrs on 15th [&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":[120,149,168,167],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carsington-bird-club","tag-diver","tag-gnd","tag-jack-snipe","tag-red-neck-grebe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","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=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk\/cbc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}