Abberton Reservoir

March 5th



A cold but very bright morning on Wednesday on our day out, as with most of this week, glorious sunshine from the word go.

In a 2-hour watch on both causeways I recorded a good number of species, most of the winter specialists like Gooseander and Goldeneye, I didn’t go further afield so would have likely added others that I knew were present.

Top of the show will undoubtedly go to the 2 Slavonian Grebes that are wintering, I have seen them in the past elsewhere but mostly fairly distant, these views were quite incredible.

I would presume a pair, both still in winter plumage, one of them was offering the other a piece of weed swimming around the other, no doubt the sun/growing warmth bringing on early breeding display.

Watched these for quite a while, also seen were Green Sandpiper, Great Egret, 3 Redshank and a distant Common Buzzard amongst many others.

No sign of any Spoonbills/Cattle Egrets as yet, but Grey Heron colony in full flow.

More Raptor Boxes

Last Sunday was quite epic in the fact that 5 of us installed 7 Raptor boxes, 3 Tawny Owl boxes,3 Kestrel boxes and a Barn Owl box.

It took most of the day as you can imagine, immensely satisfying installing them for us all on a project that began at least a month or 2 ago.

Massive credit has to go to the people organizing this, and also for a number of volunteers and those in charge for making the boxes.

All the boxes were made out of 9mm plastic sheeting, the big thing is that they will last come what may in terms of weather exposure.
Plastic is the way to go with them in terms of durability and longer lasting, so I could well head down that road myself for my boxes, if it becomes readily available.

All went very well on the day, all eyes now will be on uptake, they will be checked again in May.

A big thanks to those in charge also for allowing me to use the photos below.

                                                                        Tree Hugger!

Beckton Sewage Works Latest

 

A rare day of sunshine last week amongst the monotonous grey days, heralded some good activity on the Sewage Works and the Thames.

Oystercatchers are in, no less than 6 at the Outfall, these seemingly arrive earlier each year, with the number of large Gulls/Crows in the area, it's going to be exceptionally hard again for them raising young.

The Kestrel pairings, 2 pairs on the Sewage Works, have just started to become territorial again with males visibly present near nest sites.
Both Common Buzzards were also present, with the leaf cover gone I have marked last year’s nest, it’s still there, hopefully it will survive the winter storms.

Good to see around 20 Fieldfares on the Sewage Works, the Sewage Works has always been an annual wintering location, once they arrive, they stay, there is enough foraging to hold them for most of the winter.
Drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers were evident, additionally some investigating old holes.

Looking forward to Spring,just around the corner!

Parliament Latest

 

I can confirm that it is looking very good for the new nest site on Riverside Tower, after seeing them entering it in December, and seeing the egg scrape made on a visit later, further proof of acceptance came again in the shape of the Falcon visually entering the nestbox in January.

No doubt she was egg scraping again, other news is that last year's Juvenile - colour ringed ABB, now a 1st winter has made it into the New Year and is still present.

On my latest visit in January, I could hear them calling on Victoria Tower in semi darkness, hard to tell how many but it became apparent as soon as the light grew.

Eventually it revealed not just our pair on Westminster Abbey but also ABB, additionally prey had already been taken. It’s possible that it could have been cached prey taken during the nocturnal hours, something like a Woodcock, or just as well it could have been a Feral Pigeon ambushed leaving roost.
It also showed the commitment of a Falcon, once a mother always a mother, she was feeding the little male! I have seen it before, rather than release the prey to the little fella, she feeds him as well as herself.

The Tiercel as usual didn't get a look in, she finally cached what was left and then guarded it on the Abbey for a couple of hours, the Tiercel again forced to  hunt.

It remains now if the adult Tiercel will allow ABB to stay, it is unusual for previous years young to stay, it’s always males it seems, however as breeding fast approaches the adult Tiercel could well become aggressive towards his offspring.

I saw this at Battersea Power Station many years ago.

We will see.

                                                  Falcon feeding ABB, Tiercel looking on

 

 

 

New Project

A couple of weekends Paul and myself started another new venture, on various Farms, targeting Barn and Little Owls.

Some of the Farms already had existing Barn Owl boxes that just needed a bit of attention on them, but on some of the others we placed new boxes.

In total we positioned 2 new Barn Owl boxes, 1 new Little Owl box and also cleaned out, put new hatches in, with fresh substrate, on 3 other boxes already in situ.

The boxes that needed addressing had an accumulation of pellets and prey debris, some quite full up but very interesting/satisfying giving them a fresh overhaul and placing fresh substrate.

3 more additional boxes, already in situ, we could not access, so the plan will be to address these nearer Christmas when Barnie breeding is complete.

A very enjoyable day and thoughts now turn to the upcoming breeding season, if it all comes together, going to be a busy time with all the other boxes.

                                                                        Full up

                                                              Marking the hatch out

                                                                        New Hatch

                                                                   Little Owl Box

                                                                    Pretty full up