Greenwater Rafting

Volunteer Thursday and for once the weather was at best alright, at least at first, fortunately the wind was light, important as the task was to tow out and moor some of the vegetated rafts. The next eight were planted up with a mix of plants gathered from the edge of the lake.
I tried to find a range of locations to moor them, some sheltered and near the shore, some well out and exposed. I want to see how they stand up to the conditions and how the different plants cope in the different locations. I'm not quite sure what I was doing in the picture, but it must have been very considered and important to the task in hand, despite appearances to the contrary.

The young drake smew was on Ivy Lake, up near the Ivy North hide, so well away from our rafting antics. More surprisingly, as I was towing a raft across the lake I saw the great grey shrike flying over the water and landing in a tree on the south shore. I had assumed we had seen the last of it now that the lizards are out and about on the heaths.

By the time we had finished the sun was out and the afternoon was as good as any so far. I have seen a couple of species of solitary bees on the sandy banks by the Dockens Water and had a quick look out on the lichen heath to see if there were any there. I found none, but there were several tiny plants of common whitlowgrass in flower. There were a few honey-bees visiting the gorse flowers the strong scent of coconut from which could be detected at some distance.

The warm sun was also responsible for coaxing out my first grass snake of the year. Otherwise there was rather little to report, 45 or so sand martin over Ibsley Water and several singing chiffchaff were the only migrants, despite a bit of a search there was still no sign of a little ringed plover.

First Moths, a Shrike and the Rockford Two

After meaning to run the moth trap several times, I finally remembered yesterday and was rewarded with three moths. A single male pale brindled beauty, males of most species are far more frequent at moth traps than females. In the case of pale brindled beauty it is only males that ever come to the light as the females are flightless.
The other two moths were both chestnut, a common species that emerges as an adult in the autumn and over-winters, flying on mild nights and then more regularly in spring, surviving until April or May.

Most of the more sought after birds on the reserve seem to have collected on Ivy Lake. From the Ivy North hide a bittern was again present and the great white egret put in appearance again this afternoon. Out on the lake both of the smew, the "Rockford Two" were to be seen, although at times fishing under the over-hanging trees and so very difficult to locate. I had thought that the egret had gone, by usual standards it is staying very late this year and it was not reported at all yesterday.

After opening the hides I walked back along the path between the Dockens Water and Ellingham Lake, a good idea as it turned out as the great grey shrike was in the trees beside the Dockens just behind the Education Centre, it flew off south down the side of Ellingham Lake. It is usual to think of these shrikes being on open heath and perched in bushes or very small trees, but perhaps this is just where we can see them easily, this bird seems to be quite often in the tree tops and perhaps this is not as unusual as might be thought.

I went to the Woodland hide around the middle of the day and the brambling were very fine, at least sixty were feeding all around the hide. I have one of the feeders on camera in the lobby at the Centre and it is a great sight at times. We hope to have some clips from this camera for the website soon.

Centre for Birds

After a grey start the day turned out fine and sunny and quite bird filled. There were reports of 2 bittern and the great white egret was seen, although not as well or frequently as yesterday. The area around the Education Centre was particularly blessed, with a report of 3 waxwing flying over and all the usual birds at the feeders. A flock of long-tailed tit passed through and were typically hard to get a picture of, my best effort is below, presumably one of the birds ringed on the reserve recently.

However the highlight of the day was the great grey shrike that spent several minutes in the tops of trees just east of the Centre, although a bit distant, as I did not want to flush it, I am quite pleased with the picture I got of it.

Other reports today included 10 white-fronted geese flying over with a few greylag, although where they went is obscure as they were not on Ibsley Water as expected. A smew was again on Rockford Lake an adult Caspian gull was seen on Ibsley Water in the afternoon, although it was not obvious at the end of the day.

Although not rare the number of shoveler feeding near the Ivy South hide is impressive and they are giving a great opportunity to see them feeding cooperatively. Usually in pairs they feed by circling so that each is feeding in the water disturbed by the paddling feet of the other.

I put up a number of tit nesting boxes today, all near the dormouse boxes we put up earlier, the idea being to try and reduce the number of dormouse boxes that get nesting blue tit in instead. When in the area cleared of rhododendron this winter I came across a patch of snowdrops, now well in flower. These snowdrops may well have been planted during WW2, when several patches around the airfield, that used to occupy the space where Ibsley water is now, were tended as small gardens by off-duty RAF men.

A Change in the Weather

I was delighted to see that large areas of the ice covering the lakes had broken up overnight. This is important as it means even if we are going into a new freeze at least there is s good area of open water at the start. It also allows the birds access to feeding areas denied for some time, when they are restricted they will deplete the food supply in the small open areas quite quickly. With luck if we get new freezing it will be to different areas, it also seems that the next period will be cold and windy, making it feel very cold, but the wind should help to keep the water open. As well as lots of water I also saw the party of 5 white-fronted goose on Iblsey Water before they flew out to the valley. At the end of the day just the juvenile was present, once again separated from the adults giving credence to the idea that it is not actually the off -spring of either of the adult pairs.

The forecast was not good for today, rain was predicted from quite early, however it was Thursday and so volunteer day and true to form we managed to work cutting rhododendron until just after midday before it started to rain. The ticket is almost all cut now, there is still a lot of tidying up to do but we are well on the way to getting rid of it.

With the Christmas break on the way I was trying to get some paperwork out of the way, to clear the way for our osprey platform and to create some new shallow pools. You might wonder what paperwork this would involve, but it seems that at least the first will need planning permission, so there is lots to do.

There was one report of note during the afternoon as the great grey shrike was seen in the main car park, it had prey of some sort and flew off with it towards the Goosander hide. Obviously a bird to look out for and if it is finding prey on the reserve perhaps it will be around regularly.

Record Count

The main task today was to do the monthly wildfowl count, I started with Ibsley Water just after it got light. Most of the lake was frozen apart from a broad stretch across the middle running east-west. The most notable birds here were 2 Egyptian geese making aggressive noises at a peregrine on one of the islands.

Ivy Lake was almost completely frozen, whilst Ellingham was totally ice-free, but nearly bird free as well. Still I knew there would be a lot of birds on Rockford Lake and there were, counts included 799 coot, 220 gadwall and 66 mute swan. However the best bird I saw there was not on the lake at all, as I was starting the count I was aware of a bird flying over my head, after a moment I realised it was a great grey shrike, it flew into a tree on the Ivy Lake shore then off towards the water treatment works. This was presumably the one seen nearby a few days ago, but this time it was definitely in the reserve and so another one for the BTO Challenge total. I would guess it is also the bird that has been seen on and off on Ibsley Common.

I then visited Blashford Lake, I had not been there for a little while and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of birds on the lake, no doubt the reduced amount of sailing recently due to ice cover has allowed the birds the freedom to feed in peace. The number of gadwall was especially impressive and was a major contributor to the overall record count of 1149 that we got in total today. Snails Lake was also quite busy and like Blashford Lake around half frozen. However these were the last lakes to count for me as those to the south were all frozen over. The gadwall count is close to 2% of the NW European population and the first we have had over the thousand, although we have got within twenty or so twice before.

At the end of the day I went to Ibsley water again to count the geese and goosander, the greylag included the 5 white-fronted goose, although there had been only the four adults. Just before I arrived they had flown off to the valley and shortly after returned with the juvenile in tow, it seems very prone to getting lost. The goosander reached at least 111 before I had to leave, still a respectable number. One last bird of note was a Canada goose, there were lots but one stood out, in fact it seemed to prefer the greylag, it was a little smaller, darker, shorter-necked and smaller-billed than the usual birds. Evidently it was of one of the other races, with an appearance somewhere between a lesser and a dusky. Like dusky Canada goose it had a reduced white face patch and seemed to have a dark chin-stripe as well.