The Aldcliffe cycle.........

Friday. Ventured down the parish hoping for buntings and larks, alas not on my watch, but not all gloomy as I saw 3 Rock Pipits and a flock of 20 Linnet near the sewage works. A Peregrine appeared to be dozing on the pylon, must have had its fill. A Red breasted Merganser was on the river. A good 2500 Lapwing on the mud along with Golden Plover and Curlew mixed in.

Wildfowlers’ Pool was sparse apart from Moorhen. On the marsh, far side, were a good couple of thousand Pink footed Geese. Freeman's Pool had Tufted Duck 2, Goldeneye 4, Wigeon 2, Swan 2, Gadwall 2 and increasing numbers of Coot 15.

Steve

Roll on Spring.......

People busy with ground maintenance at the pools, though still plenty of birds on the water, with Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Shoveler, Little Grebe, Coot, Mallard, Swan and a dozen BH Gulls all present. I seem to remember last year the gulls looked like they were going to colonise the island, wonder what they will do this year? Wildfowlers’ Pool saw 300 Pink footed Geese and a dozen Canada's, a Little Egret was near the bank.

The track was quiet along with The Flood with only 3 Redshank present. On Aldcliffe Marsh were a good 2000 Lapwing, mixed in were Dunlin and Starling. Near the pylons was another Little Egret.

Some figures for the patch from WeBS on Sunday,

Swan 24

Lapwing 478, about 1500 over bypass fields, been 2500 on aldcliffe marsh this week.

Shelduck 5

Cormorant 7

Curlew 44

Canada 113

Greylag 300

Bh gull 44

Herr gull 2

Com gull 6

Mallard 20

Peregrine 2

Rock Pipit 2

Skylark 2

Blackbird 25

Starling 55

Dunnock 2

Robin 1

Great/Blue Tit up to 8 of each.

Pheasant 5

Reed Bunting 2 day before! (Guy)

Raven 1

Crow 7

Woodpigeon 30

Magpie 6

Steve 

Cuts........

I mentioned just below, Crime Watch........, about Roe Deer being hunted by some unscrupulous morons with dogs, and asked anyone who witnesses a crime or has any information regarding a crime to contact Wildlife Liaison Officer, sadly, no doubt due to cutbacks, the post has seemingly ceased to exist. However, any information can still be passed on by ringing the numbers below and of course ring the police as normal if you witness a wildlife crime in progress.

Popped down yesterday for a short time, all more or less as it was on Monday, apart from 2 Peregrine Falcons, fingers crossed!

Steve

Dry but Wet.........

Had a cycle through the parish in the dry after the weekend deluge. Freeman's continues to get busier with......Gadwall 6, Tufted Duck 6, Lapwing 33, Little Grebe 2, Mute Swan 2, Coot 5, Goldeneye 6, Mallard 25, Shoveler 2, BH Gull 5, Comm Gull 1 and Grey Heron 2.
Water levels on the Wildfowlers' Pool were high after all the rain, still fairly quiet on here mind, today only saw 2 Shoveler and the usual Moorhen.

On the track were Bullfinch 2, Dunnock 2 and a number of Great/Blue Tits. Woodpigeons appear to building in numbers, up to 40 today. Starlings 60, with a good number of the far side of the river which were too mobile to count.

On the mud from Gull Bank up towards Snatchems were at least 2000 Lapwing, roughly 120 Golden Plover and 75 Dunlin. Gulls present 275 BH Gulls with a handful of Common Gull. On the far marsh was 1 Little Egret, 2 Raven, 6 Curlew and a dozen Shelduck. There was a Peregrine keeping a watchful eye on everything from the excellent vantage point of a pylon.

Steve

Barnacle geese

An irresponsible dog walker on the marsh flushed the barnacle geese during the late afternoon. The plus side of this was to allow me to get an accurate count of them in flight which showed that we now have 21 birds in residence. The rest of the patch was quiet with only a couple of goldeneye and tufties at Freemans pools and 2 shoveller on frog pond.

Guy