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Friday, 24 December 2010

Nature Notes - December 2010

I said in the last notes to look out for waxwings!

Well I have been looking for a month now and finally achieved the yesterday! I have walked many miles and failed to see any, despite having a friend living within 500 yards and he being able to see them from his garden! After many attempts yesterday (20/12/2010) he called to say 40 were in a tree on Sileby road, Barrow-on -Soar, for the second time that day I rushed to the spot. Nothing!

So I went to his house just to make sure he was not confusing redwings and starlings with the targets, you can tell I was getting desperate! He was in is garden and had just seen them fly off, so we waited and after 10 minutes over 120 flew back in to their favourite tree.

Mission accomplished! But it just shows how being in the right place at the right time is always required for nature. These birds are feeding somewhere and only return to flock up at a meeting site, before returning to feed. They are soon disturbed by sparrowhawks and seem to gather to reinforce flock bonds. They are a magnificent sight and are not disturbed by close approach so their wonderful plumage can be scrutinised. If you have failed to see any yet, keep trying and remember they like to group together on a regular site at point when feeding is disrupted.

At this time of year when most of the lakes and reservoirs are frozen, check out any open water on the river and canal system. A walk around the Soar Valley, recently, produced mandarin (male) kingfisher, grey wagtail and little grebe. Also ducks, not usual on the river can be seen such as goosanders, widgeon, tufted, gadwall and of course big numbers of cormorants. Notice also grey herons, just coming into breeding plumage, as these will be nesting in a couple of months. Also good to see are little egrets on the rivers, as these will move to the coasts if the weather continues to be very cold.

Buzzards are also seen locally, hunting the river valleys, but we do not seem to have any shorteared owls locally, perhaps we do not have enough rodents this year, but you never know what is around the icy corner!

RO