Daffodils and upland birds in the upper Churnet Valley

Seen today in the Hurdlow area (between Upper Hulme and The Mermaid) where headwater streams feeding the Churnet flow down towards Tittesworth Reservoir.
1 pair Curlews
4 -5 displaying Meadow Pipits
1 Skylark (singing)

Also near Buttyfold Farm Upper Hulme these (probably) native wild Daffodils 

Seen in Oakamoor area this week

2x chiffchaff 4x mandarin 20x siskin 1x dipper 4x grey wagtail 1x treecreeper

Chifchaffs arrive in Dimmingsdale.

two chiffchaffs singing at dimmingsdale this morning (Terry Eyre)

Churnet Valley.

1000+ Starlings over the Weaver Hills and birds seen at Oakamoor.

Reported by Terry Eyre today 35x skylark 2x meadow pipit 25x redwing 20x fieldfare 1000+ x starlings all on the Weaver Hills. 

A Skylark flying over the Weaver Hills.

SEEN AT OAKAMOOR TODAY

Maedow Pipit

Chaffinch

Nuthatch

Magpie

Wood Pigeon

Buzzard (2)

Carrion crow

Pheasant

Goldfinch

Jackdaw

Blackbird

Bleu Tit

Wren

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Song Thrush

Long Tailed Tit

Mallard

House Sparrow

Mistle Thrish

Robin

Goldcrest

Chiffchaffs arrive in the Churnet Valley

Warblers in the Churnet Valley.

On March 9^th a contributor to the Staffordshire Bird News website here http://staffordshirebirding.blogspot.co.uk/ was the first person to report the presence of Chiffchaffs in the Churnet Valley. The first day I heard one was March the 12^th, though at Ford Green Hall Nature Reserve which is in Stoke on Trent rather than the Churnet Valley.

Chiffchaffs are usually the first of the warbler summer migrants to arrive in Britain and should be heard chiffchaffing pretty well all over the Churnet Valley where there is suitable habitat Over the next few weeks we can look forward to eight other warbler species arriving in the Churnet Valley see the list below.

SPECIES	TYPICAL BREEDING HABITAT	WHERE REPORTED IN CV IN 2013
Chiffchaff	Shrubby places with thick undergrowth and trees)	Everywhere where habitat is suitable.
Blackcap	Mixed or deciduous woodlands, large gardens with plenty of trees and shrubs	Everywhere where habitat is suitable.
Willow Warbler	Woodland edges and sparse woods plus former industrial land where scrub occurs.	Everywhere where habitat is suitable.
Sedge Warbler	In thick vegetation (e.g. reed beds and scrub)– usually in wet places though not exclusively so.	Caldon Canal, Hales Hales Pool(Cheadle), Tittesworth
Grasshopper Warbler	In a variety of habitats with dense ground cover, suitable perches and an abundance of food.	Oakamoor
Wood Warbler	Mature upland oakwoods with high canopy and sparse ground cover.	Coombes Valley and Oakamoor area.
Garden Warbler	Mixed or deciduous woodlands or copses with plenty of scrub and dense ground.	Kingsley area, Brough Park Fields NR, Cheddleton area, Ladderedge CP area, Oakamoor
Whitethroat	Scrubby areas, woodland edge.	Cheddleton, Ladderedge CP, Hazelhurst Junct. Areas.
Lesser Whitethroat	Scrubby areas including on brownfield sites	Not yet reported but may occur in CV
Reed Warbler	Reed Beds.	Not yet reported. (A breeding species in Staffordshire though there may not be sufficient reed bed habitat for it to breed in the CV.)

A Chiffchaff (photo courtesy of Terry Eyre).

Spotted near Thorswood on Saturday 1st March

I had 9x lapwing 7x buzzard 2x raven and more than 20 magpies in around the thorswood area on Saturday the ravens are nesting - Terry

See Terry's photos below.

Recent sightings in Brough Park Fields Nature Reserve

WFYD volunteer Diane reported seeing a Little Egret in Brough Park Fields Nature Reserve in the first week of January 2014.

From the RSPB website, “Little Egrets... first appeared in the UK in significant numbers in 1989 and first bred in Dorset in 1996......”

In the recently published (2013) Bird Atlas 2007-11 the authors begin the page on the Little Egret thus, “The colonisation and range expansion of the Little Egret represents one of the most phenomenal shifts in abundance and distribution of any bird in Britain and Ireland over the past 20 years.”

Little Egrets are a type of heron, indeed, when they first came to breed in Britain (from Spain and France) they first established breeding colonies amongst Grey Heron heronries. Initially they were confined to the south and east coasts but now they are breeding as far north as Cumbria and Northumberland. In winter they have been seen in lowland areas as far north as the Shetland Isles.

Little Egrets have also been seen at Tittesworth Reservoir and Rudyard Lake in previous years.

Little Egret, Devon. Photo courtesy of Nilfanion taken from Wikimedia Commons

 

Also recently seen in Brough Park NR are flocks of Brambling feeding on Beech mast under Beech trees, Wigeon and Teal.