First Pink-footed Geese of the Autumn

A total of 278 Pink-footed Geese crossed Beeley Moor this morning in 5 skeins. They were all headed SE towards the Wash or Norfolk coast I imagine. They were flying quite high and travelling fast assisted by the strong NW wind. They probably set off from the Southport area of Merseyside. Hopefully get some more tomorrow.

Pink=footed Geese

Common Lizards enjoying the last of the sunshine

I've seen several Common Lizard basking in the sunshine on the moors over the last couple of days. Once the weather changes I think they will be hibernating until next year. The upper photo is a young one, presumably born either this year or last whilst the lower photo is of an older adult.

Common Lizard

Violet Ground Beetle - Beeley Moor

I came across this Violet Ground Beetle crossing a gravel track on Beeley Moor this morning. 

I'm no expert but I think this is Carabus violaceus rather than the similar Carabus problematicus. Both species are fairly widespread in the UK.

Violet Ground Beetle

Third Osprey and first Merlin of the autumn

Watched an Osprey fly up from the river in the Rowsley area this morning carrying a large fish, it landed on Beeley Moor and was still there eating it 2 hours later. The fish looks like a Brown Trout. Most years I see Ospreys carrying fish up on to the moor to eat them, you would think it would be easier to eat them close to where they are caught but I guess it's quieter up on the moor.

Osprey with fish

Stood on Flash Lane I watched a Merlin following the Chesterfield Road flying towards Sitches Plantation, my first of the autumn. It's almost certainly a juvenile female bird that was caught and ringed on Tuesday.

Carsington Water - all day birdwatch

I took part in Carsington Bird Club's all day birdwatch today. The idea being to watch the site all day, from before first light until darkness. I was there from about 07:30 to around 14:00, the weather could have been a bit more helpful as it was heavily overcast most of the day with some heavy rain showers but the keener members of the team were there throughout!

This was a repeat of an event last September when they recorded 81 species, todays final total was 92 so a great achievement by all involved. Highlights for me were Common Scoter, Marsh Harrier, Little Egret and my first Pink-footed Goose of the autumn but the supporting cast of Northern Wheatear, several Common Swift, Red-crested Pochard and Ringed Plover. In addition I missed Great Egret, Common Sandpiper as well as quite a few woodland species but had a thoroughly enjoyable time. 

Marsh Harrier - juvenile

Pink-footed Goose

Little Egret

Osprey at Chatsworth

 Definite autumn feeling as I set out this morning with a fresh NE wind blowing. I decided to have a look at Chatsworth before heading to the moor and was rewarded with an Osprey sat on a dead tree by the river with what looked like a small fish. There is a lot of water flowing down the river at the moment, consequently the water is very brown so the Osprey did well to catch something.

It wasn't happy to stay by the river with walkers passing but flew a short distance to the tree by the house to finish its meal.

Osprey

A party of 5 juvenile Goosander was a welcome sight and perhaps an indication that there has been some breeding success locally. The usual flock of Mandarin (32) feeding on the grass and a single Sand Martin still visiting a nest burrow which is very late but quite a few House Martin and Swallows were more expected.

Goosander - the white area between the eye and gape indicating that they are juveniles

Up on the moor a party of 8 Stonechat had a Winchat with them and my first group of 7 Snipe heading up on to the moor for the winter.

Whinchat

Mixed feeding flocks

With the breeding season over and very few birds now singing the local woodlands can appear almost birdless at times. Most of the small woodland birds, passerines, are now in mixed feeding flocks so unless you come across one of these groups you're not likely to see many birds.

The benefits of mixed feeding flocks are thought to be two fold, there is better protection against  predators with so many birds on the lookout and listening, and each bird can afford to be less vigilant and focus more on feeding. Secondly their feeding is more efficient as the flock is more likely to encounter a good feeding area but because they are in mixed flocks the competition for the same food type is reduced compared with a single species flock.

Spotted Flycatcher

Over the past few weeks I've encountered some large mixed flocks, some numbering several hundred birds with a mix of finches, mainly Siskin and Chaffinch, and warblers, predominantly Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers but also Blackcap, and tits, with Blue, Great and Coal plus a few Long-tailed. Other species mixed with the flocks include Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Spotted Flycatcher, Goldcrest and even Tree Pipit.

Tree Pipit - juvenile

So if you come across a mixed feeding flock its worth stopping for a while to see what species are in it. Each winter several rarities are found that have become attached to one of these mixed feeding flocks.

Red Grouse - GOING, GOING, almost GONE

There could be no glorious (or inglorious!) 12th on Beeley or the Eastern Moors with the Red Grouse perilously close to disappearing altogether. This year I've seen just two pairs on Beeley Moor, which I visit regularly and only a single pair on East Moor. There could be one or two more birds on East Moor which I tend to visit a little less frequently than Beeley and don't cover all areas.

Red Grouse - male

One pair I have seen regularly on Beeley and they should have grown young by now but I last saw them on 20th July with no sign of any young birds then. 

Why the numbers have declined so seriously is a mystery to me. Twenty years ago I regularly saw groups of 15 to 20 birds and in the 60's and 70's I have been told of flocks of a 100 birds.

It must be at least 10 years since there was any shooting on the moor and it's an achievement to see one now let alone shoot one. 

There are foxes and badgers around the moor but I have not noticed any significant increase in number over the last couple of decades.

Raven numbers continue to increase in the area but they are still only present in small numbers around the moor. A few years ago a large group of Carrion Crow numbering over a hundred birds were seen regularly on the moor and whilst there are still large numbers around they appear to spend most of their time around the fields on Screetham Lane and only venture on to the moors in small numbers.

Is it climate change? Climatic changes over the last few decades have been put forward as a reason for the reduction in Merlin numbers in parts of Yorkshire with nesting records showing that the Merlins were gradually moving to higher altitudes and could explain why the Merlin has disappeared from both Beeley and East Moor where there is no opportunity to seek out significantly higher ground.

The moorlands themselves are changing with a decrease in heather and increase in bracken, and birch trees are taking hold in many areas perhaps in part due to dryer conditions.

The Red Grouse can still be found in good numbers a short distance to the north in the High Peak. In many of these areas the moorlands are still managed for grouse shooting and the numbers in some of these areas may be unnaturally high, partly through the removal of all predators, sadly including the illegal killing of birds of prey, but I have even fewer sightings of harriers and other raptors over the moors than I do of Red Grouse.

The thought of Beeley and East Moor without Red Grouse is like fish without chips or salt without pepper, the moors and grouse belong together but I am pessimistic that it will remain so for much longer. I hope I'm wrong.

Wood Sandpiper - new for the area at Chatsworth Park

 I was very surprised this morning when i saw a medium sized wader by the waters edge at Chatsworth. I thought it would be a Green Sandpiper, which I have seen once before here and is a regular visitor to both Carsington and Ogston in the late summer and autumn. However, as soon as I got my binoculars on it I realised it was its somewhat rarer cousin the Wood Sandpiper. Paler brown on the upper parts with a distinct supercilium, pale underwing and finely barred tail are all distinguishing features from Green Sandpiper. 

This bird looked to be a juvenile with no signs of wing moult and heavily spotted upper parts it was probably born in Scandinavia so it's already completed quite a journey to Chatsworth and will continue south to sub-saharan Africa for the winter.

Wood Sandpiper

Osprey again at Rowsley

Better view of the Osprey today. thanks to a phone call from Ken. It was sat on a dead tree by the Congrieve turn off north of Rowsley. It's definitely been in the area since 14th July and possibly since the 8th so quite a long stay.

No sign of any rings so no way of knowing its origins, it looks like an adult or at least 2nd calendar year, quite small so possibly a male. 

It did a brief fly around before landing in the trees closer to Rowsley.

Osprey (© Ken Smith)

Osprey and Willow Tit

An interesting day today as the weather finally started to improve and the temperature rose to 25°C this afternoon. I spent the morning around Stannage Edge looking out for the Bearded Vulture. Although there were reports from Chatsworth and Grindleford yesterday I'm not convinced that it's still in the area.

This afternoon a visit to Clough Wood produced the expected Marbled White butterflies and an unexpected Willow Tit, one of two which Simon had seen earlier in the day. I was heading for Rowsley to look for Hobby which have proved very elusive since the spate of records in May and early June. I was unsuccessful but was more than compensated by distant views of an adult Osprey over Haddon Hall. There have been several sightings of Osprey by fishermen in the Rowsley area recently so this could be the same bird.

Marbled White

Willow Tit

Osprey

Locally both Osprey and Willow Tit are very scarce but I see fewer Willow Tits than Osprey each year .

Little Grebe nesting success at Chatsworth

I've seen one, and sometimes two Little Grebes regularly at Chatsworth and suspected they might be breeding although it felt like it was getting a little late in the season. Today I struck lucky though and managed a photo of an adult with two tiny youngsters.
Locally the Little Grebe is a very scarce breeding bird, the only other pair I've come across in the summer is at Conksbury Bridge but there are usually a few more around on the rivers during the winter months.

Little Grebe with chicks

White Wagtail déjà vu on Beeley Moor

Having seen a completely unexpected White Wagtail on Beeley Moor at this time last year I have a habit of closely scrutinising all the wagtails I get a decent view of. I was still very surprised to come across another pale backed 'alba' wagtail and even more so to see it in the same place as last year on the edge of Beeley Moor. In fact, I think it is too much of a coincidence and am inclined to the view that it is the same bird, a year older.

White Wagtail - adult male

Last year I decided that the bird was in it's first summer as both juvenile, post juvenile and pre-breeding greater coverts could be identified in the wing. This bird looks like an adult with just two ages of feather in the median and greater coverts which is typical of an adult bird. As last year, this bird looks like a male with a sharp division between the black of the nape and the grey of the mantle. 

It appeared to be with a female Pied Wagtail and both birds were collecting and flying off with food so obviously feeding young nearby. Last year the female was also rather pale backed but this year the female looks to be a typical Pied.

Pied Wagtail - adult female

I'm calling the bird a White Wagtail but it's impossible to be certain, it could be a hybrid but must surely have some White Wagtail in it.

Another interesting feature when comparing these two birds was that the Pied shows black sides to the upper breast in the shoulder area giving a continuous black breast band whereas the White had white sides to the breast, with some black spotting so the breast band is more isolated appearing as a bib rather than a continuous band.

Pied Wagtail female v White Wagtail male

Summer gulls

Every year the cutting of the hay meadows for silage attracts hundreds of gulls, mainly Lesser Black-backed Gulls, to the fields between Winster and Newhaven. 
The gulls seem to be particularly attracted to the field after the grass has been cut and just removed, presumably revealing lots of insects that have been left behind, so they move around the fields quite a bit as they are cut. 
There are a lot of fields, many of which are not close to roads,  and when they are near the roads they can be busy so you need to find the fields that are reasonable accessible at the right time.
Today I counted over 350 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, predominantly of the British race graellsii but also a few of the darker backed race intermedius which breeds in northern Denmark, southern and central Norway.
Many of these birds will be heading to the Iberian peninsula or Morocco for the winter.
I also counted 9 of the paler backed Yellow-legged Gulls which have spread in to southern Britain from the French and Portuguese Atlantic coasts and the Mediterranean over the past couple of decades and are now regular on Midland lakes and reservoirs in the late summer and autumn.

Lesser Black-backed Gull - graellsii adult

Lesser Black-backed Gull - graellsii 1st summer 

Lesser Black-backed Gulles - graellsii foreground with intermedius behind

Lesser Black-backed Gull - intermedius adult

Yellow-legged Gull - 3rd summer

Yellow-legged Gull - 2nd summer

Juveniles - the class of 2020

Lots of juveniles around at the moment, here are four of my favourites; Stonechat, Common Redstart, Wheatear and Long-tailed Tit. All seen around Beeley Moor.