Monday 14 December 2015

catch up

This post is a round up of records additional to Geoff's regular postings and covers approx. the last 4 weeks.
Little grebe; not much to add other than I assume that my summery bird mentioned in his post I am assuming is the bird I regularly see at Aldersley junction. Although never seen in flight birds seem to move quite quickly up and down the canal.
Mallard; a survey of  the whole valley in mid-November produced 86 birds of which two-thirds were male.
Moorhen; the same survey produced a count of 66 birds of which only 25% were juveniles. This is surprisingly low but it was noticeable that the largest brood was 4 and there were few double broods, (in other years birds have been triple brooded and 6 was a common clutch)
Peregrine; a suspected juvenile male flew from the direction of the town centre quite low over my head at Wightwick lock on 16 nov.
Treecreeper a bird with a mixed flock on the old railway just north of the access rd to the aldersly stadium was the first for a while and possibly a second in the flock.
Much more interestingly a calling but unseen bird seemed to be in the adjoining gardens and sounded just like a lesser spotted woodpecker. this was early dec and will revisit when get chance.
Blackcap a female in the hole, sw corner barleyfield, at the end of the month -a male has been seen in crowther rd
Chiffchaff a fleeting glimpse of a possible by the canal feeders turned into a confirmed with mixed flock above old bridge.
Grey wagtail regular bird around old bridge/and.pub area

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