Wednesday 12 September 2012

Late Summer Birding 2012

Been birding quite a lot recently inbetween going away to festivals, birdfair (where I saw heaps of waders, a Black Tern, and dipped on a Little Stint), working and doing butterfly surveys. Somehow i've managed to squeeze it all in.

As is the norm this time of year one of the highlights has been the increase in waders around the country, and while Notts usually misses out on rare 'yank' waders and other vagrants, we do get an influx of passage birds dropping in at our wetland sites. I've managed to get to Attenborough a few times throughout August, picking up a few of these birds which you don't see often in our landlocked county.

Cottages flash, over the river from Attenborough, actually on the Clifton site, has been attracting waders throughout the summer, due to it being inundated through the heavy rains we've had all summer. The Trent has also kept it topped up by breaching its banks a few times early on. At the end of July a Greenshank and Common Sandpiper showed well when I paid it a visit on the Clifton side.

At Attenborough itself, several visits throughout August revealed a Common Sandpiper kicking things off on the 4th, and a Greenshank showing splendidly on the 22nd which stayed for around a week around the wet grassland on wheatear field, along with up to 4 Little Egrets. Things got a bit busier the week after with 3 Common Sandpiper across the reserve, several Snipe, 2 juvenile Ruff and a few Black tailed Godwits, although the latter found it more comfortable spending time over the river at cottages flash. I haven't been since but judging from records there's still a few birds dropping in and moving through.

Obviously songbirds are less obvious around this time of year and its been starkly obvious when walking around, barely hearing anything and only getting the occasional view of a skulking warbler here and there. However duck numbers seem to be slowly swelling, especially at Attenborough, where Teal and Shoveler are trickling in to join the Mallard and Gadwall to create a big mass of confusing brown birds while the males are all in eclipse plumage. Bring on the Wigeon!

In more recent weeks, raptor numbers have been on the up as migrating birds and juveniles have been taking to the skies. I missed out on seeing a Hobby all summer until while working at Clifton on the 22nd of August, one showed itself incredibly well while chasing House Martin up near the farm near Branshill. After that there were several seen within a couple of weeks, with more being seen at clifton, one on a bike ride near Shelford and while working at Skylarks in Holme Pierrepont a male bird was seen hawking dragonflies giving amazing views. Buzzard numbers have increased too which is usual at this time of year as the juveniles are being persuaded to disperse by their weary parents. A visit to Clifton produced at least 10 birds one morning, and counts of even more birds have been recorded in recent weeks. Most interesting however was a Red Kite seen at Holme Pierrepont being mobbed by crows on the 9th of September, only my second record of this species in Notts after seeing one at Attenborough in september 2010.

Other highlights include my first ever Spotted Flycatcher which was seen atop a dead oak tree on Clifton Grove while I was surveying butterflies on the 8th. I'd visited the area a few days previously with the sole intention of finding a Spotted Fly but failed miserably, so I was really pleased to have finally caught up with one after missing them in previous years. Also a very brief and early record of a Bittern at Holme Pierrepont was very exciting and is the first i've seen in notts since winter 2010/11.

So its been an incredible few weeks really. I'm keeping an eye out so hopefully i'll see some more interesting stuff, autumns on its way so let's hope for something a bit special.

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