birdcount --- 30th December 2012

Where have all the birds gone.

Only goldcrests seemed to be around.  These were in pairs, and presumably represents establishing territories.

There were plenty of herring gulls, that well known heathland bird.

There was one woodcock, which apparently Ron had a novel way of flushing, though I was politely keeping a distance.  Or so Ron claims.

My battery gave out again, but my spare saved the day, as the back up paper system failed as well.

There were really no thrushes, and there do seem to be very few berries for them to eat.  There were no great tits.  Have they all gone to the towns, and taken advantage of Christmas food offerings and sales.

The weather was by far the best of a terrible couple of weeks.

link for the spreadsheet

martin

birdcount --- 22 November 2012

Not a good day for the bird count.

But 3 woodcock was nice.

Only 26 species.  Many species probably present but hiding from the wind and rain.

you may note a break in the times recorded in  the morning.  The battery on the machine failed, and I put the missing figures into the machine later on at the tool store.  So some distortion if people are looking too closely.


click this link to get the spreadsheet

martin

birdcount --- 26th October 2012

Click on the link below to see the birdcount spread sheet

Winter migrations under way, with plenty of Fieldfares, Redwing, and Lesser Redpolls, plus those other birds that one might forget about, such as song thrush, skylark, meadow pipit and woodcock.

34 species and 352 birds is a pretty fair total.  Plenty of birds missing from the list that one could have seen, and were certainly present, but that is always the case.

There is not much food around, for instance berries on the trees, and maybe we won't keep some of these birds throughout the winter.

click to get the spreadsheet

martin

18th December 2012 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Pat, Keith, Mike and martin

Activities:

- lookered the cattle
- brought down hung up tree that the contractors left (only top part had been left)
- burnt brash near cricket pitch
- extended one of the run off on road along m1, which was filling up with water

Observations:

- gary? Was on the reserve
- raven
- robins
- nobody is able to make the next two Tuesdays ( ie xmas day and new years day)


Martin

11th December 2012 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Jonathan, Mike, Alan, Pat, Keith, Ray, and Martin

Activities:

- bonfire of brash just past the main beeches
- cut down marked oak, that contractors missed ( they weren't sure we had recognised it as an oak.  "why would you want to cut an oak?")
- made logs safe
- took two small pines for festive purposes
- lookered cattle

Observations:

- cattle did not come to fire
- siskins
- Ravens nesting?

Martin

4th December 2012 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Jonathan, Pat, Mike, Alan, Keith, Ron and Martin

Activities:

- lookered cattle
- bonfire near batters clump
- made logs safe
- make some leaning dead wood safe in the wood along the  M1
- remarked in yellow some trees to be felled.   Mark had not  marked all the trees with red
- pond work on pippingford, correcting some erosion

Observations:
- two ravens at old nest site
- large herd of fallow on cricket pitch
- siskin, green woodpecker
- John collected some dung
- martin took xmas tree and two saplings
- alan provided lovely tarts etc

Martin

27th November 2012 ... weekly volunteers

Present;

John, Jonathan, Keith, Neil, David a, David P, and  Martin

Activities:

- horrid weather
- sawing firewood in tool shed
- bringing more logs into shed to dry
- setting a bow saw
- setting and sharpening 2 man saw
- lookering cattle
- remedial work on 2 pippingford ponds
- stopping overflow on west pond and enlarging outlet
- pulling bramble behind shed
- preparing some stakes for future pond work
- collecting  sawdust for Keith's hens


Observations:

- siskins
- jays,  magpies
- fallow deer



 Martin

20th November 2012 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John,  mike, Alan, Jonathan, David a, Keith and  Martin

Activities:

- horrid weather, so mostly in tool store
- filled brochure box
- cleared beer cans from car park
- spread some gravel over muddy patches outside store
- cut logs stored in shed
- sharpened and set a few bow saws
- split some bigger logs
- swept up sawdust for keith's hens
- cleared the front gutters
- lookered cattle

Observations:

- 2 ravens



 Martin

13th November 2012 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Jonathan, Mike, Alan, Neil, David p, David a, Keith, Ray, Pat, and Martin

Activities:

- gorge bonfires in the triangle, with stuff cut last week, plus new coppicing

Observations

- kestrel
- crossbill, siskin, redpoll
- redwing
- tree creeper
- Meadow pipit
- Raven
- Paul +1 felling trees
- john took some pony dung
- police landrover came to check on fire. Very nice guys.  Had already notified the fire brigade.

 Martin

6th November 2012 ... Weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Jonathan,  Mike, Tim, Alan, David a, David p, Katherine, Neil (k), Ray,  Keith and Martin

- Bonfires of gorse and brash (3)
- cut gorse along road and in triangle

Observations:

- Raven, Kestrel
- crossbill , siskins , redpolls
- meadow pipits , skylarks, redwing
- brambling


 Martin

30th October 2012 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Jonathan, Mike, Alan, Neil, Pat, Ray, Keith and  Martin

Activities:

- 3 brash bonfires in wood down from roller stand, and one gorse bonfire near the large oak tree there.
- cutting  more gorse along the road.

Observations:
- siskins, redpolls, meadow pipits, skylark
- orange peel gone
- no cows yet

 martin

23rd October 2012 ... weekly volunteers

Present:

John, Jonathan, Alan, Tim, Ray, Keith, Neil, Mike and Martin

Activities:

- two bonfires of contractor's brash.  Basically beeches avenue on right hand side
- John did some birch sapling work on slope to bridge
- looked unsuccessfully for nail fungus

Observations:

- J's grandson Thomas liked our bonfire and added several large logs
- lots of fungi coming up, including orange peel
- skylarks and meadow pipits
- Rutting
- Paul returned all the tools, from the tree planting
- Mike wants better instructions
- a very friendly tree(?) mouse was seen burrowing amongst the brash. Relatively short tail.


 Martin