Birds seen in Churnet Valley December 2014

This photo of Black-headed Gulls on a frozen seasonal pool near Cheddleton wa taken on 28th december 2014. Sometimes Oystercatchers are seen at this pool,but on that day there were none. However there was a flock of about 14 Snipe feeding and flying in the area, plus various tits, finches etc. Earlier in the day a flock of about 100 Pink-footed Geese flew from the Staffordshire Moorlands area towards S-O-T. Below is a list of birds seen (by me (Wendy Birks) in the Churnet Valley this month. 

A "1" indicates species present (not numer seen) DHCP = Deep Hayes Country Park and H. Junct. = Hazelhurst Junction. If no "1" or comment then the species was not seen. The Bittern was  a surprise sighting on the edge of the Roaches Estate. During a walk on a foggy and frosty Christmas day It flew up from a rushy patch as we walked along a public footpath adjacent to a stream. A Bittern had also been a recent visitor to nearby Tittesworth Reservoir and I think that this may the same one that had become disorientated whilst flying in the fog and was sheltering by the most readily available waterside habitat.

2014	December
Barn owl	Kingsley	Marsh Tit	DHCP
Bittern	The Roaches Estate	Meadow Pipit	near Hazlehurst Junction
Black-headed gull	1	Merlin
Blackbird	1	Mistle Thrush	1
Blackcap		Moorhen	1
Blue tit	1	Mute swan	2 Brookley's Lake
Brambling		Nuthatch	1
Bullfinch	1	Oystercatcher
Buzzard	1	Peregrine
Canada Goose	1	Pheasant	1
Carrion Crow	1	Pied Flycatcher
Chaffinch	1	Pied Wagtail	1
Chiff Chaff		Pink-Footed Goose	flock flew from Staffs Moorlands along Endon valley towards S-O-T
Coal Tit	1	Pochard
Collared Dove	1	Raven	1
Common Gull		Red Grouse	Roaches
Common Sandpiper		Red Kite
Coot	1	Red-legged Partridge
Cormorant	Rudyard Lake	Redshank
Crossbill		Redstart
Cuckoo		Redwing	1
Curlew	1	Reed Bunting	H. Junct.+ Chedd.
Dipper	2 Cotton Dell	Reed Warbler
Dunlin		Ringed Plover (Little)
Dunnock	1	Ring Ouzel
Fieldfare	flocks in many places	Robin	1
Gadwall	1 Brookleys Lake	Rock dove/feral pigeon	1
Garden Warbler		Rook	1
Garganey		Sand Martin
Goldcrest	1	Sedge Warbler
Goldeneye		Short-eared Owl
Goldfinch	1	Shoveler
Goosander	Rudyard Lake and Whiston Quarry	Siskin	H.Junct. & Froghall
Goshawk		Skylark
Grasshopper Warbler		Snipe	near H.Junct. + near Chedd
Great black backed Gull		Song Thrush	1
Great Crested Grebe	Rudyard Lake	Sparrowhawk	1
Great Spotted Woodpecker	1	Spotted Flycatcher
Great Tit	1	Starling	1
Green Woodpecker	H. Junct.	Stock Dove
Greenfinch	1	Stonechat
Grey Heron	1	Swallow
Grey Partridge		Swift
Grey Wagtail	1	Tawny Owl	1
Greylag Goose		Teal	DHCP
Herring Gull		Tree Creeper	1
Hobby		Tree Pipit
House Martin		Tree Sparrow	1
House Sparrow	1	Tufted Duck	6 DHCP
Jackdaw	1	Water Rail
Jay	1	Waxwing
Kestrel	1	Wheatear
Kingfisher	Caldon Canal near Longsdon and DHCP	Whitethroat
Lapwing	1	Wigeon	12 H. Junct.
Lesser black backed Gull	H. Junct.	Willow Tit	DHCP
Lesser Redpoll		Willow Warbler
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker		Woodpigeon	1
Lesser Whitethroat		Wood Warbler
Linnet		Woodcock
Little Grebe	1 DHCP & 1 Brankley Lakel	Wren	1
Little Owl	near Rudyard Lake + Kingsley	Yellow Wagtail
Long-eared Owl		Yellowhammer
Long-tailed Tit	1	Little Egret
Magpie	1	Greater Scaup
Mallard	1	Lesser Scaup
Mandarin Duck	DHCP 2 pairs c50 Brookleys Lake	Common Tern
		Hen Harrier
		Turtle Dove

Mandarins and Mallards at Brookleys Lake today

I counted at least 200 Mallards and about 50 Mandarin Ducks at Brankley pool today.

Three photos of bracket fungi on a dead trunk near froghall.

A winter apple tree near in tussocky grassland near Crumpwood Weir. 

And....it was warm enough for, at least some, insects to fly.

Birds and mammals spotted at Deep Hayes Country Park December 2014.

Deep Hayes Country Park	13/12/2014 and 16/12/2014	Notes
Mallard	About 40	16 on middle pool 20 on bottom pool
Tufted Duck	About 5	males and females
Mandarin Duck	2 pairs
Tufted Duck	About 5	males and females
Goosander	About 7	males and females
Coot	7
Moorhen	About 6
Little Grebe	1
possible Water Rail		skulking near reedmace bed
Kingfisher	1	briefly perched in tree by little pool by bird hide
Buzzard	1	flying over
Pheasant	1
Goldcrest	1
Dunnock	1
Chaffinch	3	from bird hide
Wren	13 plus3	heard
Blackbird	21 plus
Coal Tit	3 plus	from bird hide
Long -Tailed Tit	About 8	from bird hide first day and in tree tops second day
Blue Tit	22 plus
Great Tit	6 plus
Willow Tit (possible)	1	feeding in front of bird hide
Marsh Tit	1
Robin	5 plus
Nuthatch	5 plus
Woodpigeon	4
Great Spotted Woodpecker	1
Jackdaw	About 18
Jay	1
Carrion Crow	2
Fieldfare	3
At least 30 bird species.
Grey Squirrels	4	feeding in front of bird hide plus more in woodland
Red Fox		attempted to catch bird feeding in front of bird hide first day and another (perhaps same one ) seen second day

Dippers, fungi and dry-stone-walls - a walk from Oakamoor, through Cotton Dell, Whiston and back.

Cotton Dell, where two Dippers were seen (see text below). 

Dipper. 

Dippers are a resident species that feed on a range of freshwater animals including invertebrates such as caddis fly larvae and even small fish. Creatures such as these can only exist in oxygen-rich waters that range from mildly acid to calcium rich and so water quality is an important factor determining the geographical range of Dippers. The presence of two Dippers on the stream in Cotton Dell suggests the water is of good quality, and it certainly looked much clearer than do many of the streams and rivers in the Churnet Valley. 

Dippers formerly occupied many more rivers and streams that they do at present. Water pollution has led to a reduction in food supply and hence the habitat available to the birds. The water pollution is from two sources. In some water courses, the water has become acidified due to acid rain (this was and is caused by the extensive planting of conifer plantations in the 1970s and 1980s and aerial sulphur dioxide from vehicle exhausts and industrial sources). In addition some streams and rivers are polluted by farm effluents, which caused a depletion in oxygen levels in the water (because the nutrients in the effluent feeds microbes such as cyanobacteria which in turn use up much of the available oxygen).

Dippers remain in their territories pretty much all year round as they are able to survive all but the harshest of winters. They start to breed as early as February so winter is a good time to look and listen for them. If you are persistent you may be fortunate enough to hear the lovely warble of a Dipper as it perches on a stone in one of our local streams. 

  

Various fungi growing on end of log in Cotton Dell.

Honey Fungi growing at base of Sorbus tree near Whiston Common.

Mixed (limestone and sandstone) stone dry-stone-wall at top of Whiston to Froghall plateway.

Mossy growth clothing the branches of a fallen tree in Cotton Dell.

A misty walk on The Roaches Estate today.

Waxcap fungi with Hen Cloud in the background.

Cowberry berries on Cowberry growing amongst Crowberry.

A waxcap fungi.

Fungi growing in grassland between Hen Cloud and the Roaches. 

Red Grouse droppings. The slimy brown droppings are caecal droppings from the grouse's caecum in which the typically indigestable and unnourishing food (e.g. heather shoots) that make up a ren grouse's winter diet is metabolised by gut microbes into useful molecules such as protein. The fibrous, cylindrical droppings are from the intestine - they are capped with white urine. 

Larvae of Fox Moth - a heathland moth species whose larvae feed on bramble, heather, bilberry plus others. 

The Dane at the boundary of The Roaches Estate.