BIRDS SEEN AT "WILDLIFE FROM YOUR DOORSTEP" EVENTS, APRIL 2013

Below are checklists of birds that were seen during the recent "Wildlife From Your Doorstep" events at Consall Nature Park and Cecilly Brook/Hales Hall.

You will see that most species were seen at Cecilly Brook, which is a great urban birdwatching site. We were particularly pleased to see and hear both Chiff Chaffs and Willow Warblers, both summer migrants that had only recently arrived after their long journey from Africa. We stood and watched a small group of these extremely active little birds as they flitted about feeding on insects which they were finding in a hedge of large conifer and deciduous trees that bounded a private garden.

We were also pleased to see and hear a Reed Bunting proclaiming his territory in amongst the wetland vegetation at the northern end of Hales Hall pool. Other notable sightings were a Great Crested Grebe on the water, a Mallard with fifteen ducklings, a Lesser Redpoll taking advantage of garden feeders and a Siskin in the top of a tree.

Perhaps rather surprising was the low number of species seen during the visit to Consall Nature Park. This does not really reflect the wide range of species that is typically seen and heard in and around this park, but rather the fact that the weather was very gusty and because the birdwatching was mainly restricted to looking through a birding telescope from near the centre (so that I would be on hand to talk to visitors).

And, the other news of great interest is that the Pied Flycatchers are back in the Churnet Valley. Mr Burton, who manages East Wall Farm near Hawksmoor spotted them on Thursday 18th April. They have also arrived at the RSPB Coombes Valley Nature reserve.

Pied Flycatcher courtesy of Steve Garvie licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic from Wikimedia Commons.

Mr Burton has invited other "Wildlife From Your Doorstep" volunteers to go to see the birds on his farm. I will be arranging a visit and will let you know as soon as I have the full details.

	Consall Nature Park	Cecilly Brook	Hales Hall
	14/03/13	18/04/13	18/03/13
WEATHER CONDITIONS→	very windy, sunny periods, patchy cloud,showers.	windy, overcast, dry	windy, overcast, dry
Barn owl
Black-headed gull
Blackbird		1	1
Blackcap
Blue tit	1	1	1
Brambling
Bullfinch
Buzzard	1
Canada Goose	1	1	1
Carrion Crow	1	1	1
Chaffinch	1	1	1
Chiff Chaff	1	1	1
Coal Tit	1	1	1
Collared Dove
Common Gull
Common Sandpiper
Coot			1
Cormorant
Crossbill
Cuckoo
Curlew
Dipper
Dunlin
Dunnock		1	1
Fieldfare
Gadwall
Garden Warbler
Garganey
Goldcrest	1
Goldfinch		1	1
Goosander
Goshawk
Great black backed Gull
Great Crested Grebe			1
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit	1	1	1
Green Woodpecker
Greenfinch		1
Grey Heron
Grey Partridge
Grey Wagtail
Greylag Goose
Herring Gull
House Martin
House Sparrow		1	1
Jackdaw		1
Jay	1	1
Kestrel
Kingfisher
Lapwing
Lesser black backed Gull	1	1
Lesser Redpoll			1
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Lesser Whitethroat
Linnet
Little Grebe
Little Owl
Long-eared Owl
Long-tailed Tit
Magpie
Mallard	1	1	1
Mandarin Duck
Marsh Tit
Meadow Pipit
Merlin
Mistle thrush
Moorhen
Mute swan
Nuthatch	1
Oyster Catcher
Peregrine
Pheasant	1
Pied Flycatcher
Pied Wagtail		1
Pochard
Raven
Red Grouse
Red-legged Partridge
Redshank
Redstart
Redwing
Reed Bunting			1
Reed Warbler
Ringed Plover
Robin	1	1	1
Rock dove/feral pigeon
Rook		1
Sedge Warbler
Short-eared Owl
Shoveler
Siskin		1
Skylark
Snipe
Song Thrush		1
Sparrowhawk
Spotted Flycatcher
Starling		1
Stock Dove
Stonechat
Swallow	1		1
Swift
Tawny Owl
Teal
Tree Creeper
Tree Pipit
Tree Sparrow
Tufted Duck			1
Water Rail
Waxwing
Wheatear
Whitethroat
Wigeon
Willow Tit
Willow Warbler		1
Woodpigeon	1	1	1
Wood Warbler
Woodcock
Wren	1	1	1
Yellow Wagtail
Yellowhammer
TOTAL NUMBER OF SPECIES SEEN	18	24	20