January 2007 Bird Report

The New Year started with 3 or 4 Great Crested Grebes in front of Colebrook Hide taking 4 reasonable sized fish in 15 minutes.  Does the cold water slow down the fish and make them easer to catch I wonder?  One or two Little Egrets on most days and up to 25 Cormorants about. 

On 8th, I watched a family of 7 baby Egyptian Geese with their parents on Grove Lake; 8 young were reported a few days before.  Within a couple of weeks they had disappeared; probably due to predation rather than the cold – daft birds. 

A typical winter situation with around 400 Wigeon, 60 Teal, 80 Shoveler, 5 Goldeneye - why do we get more males than females on this site, whereas at other Berkshire sites Goldeneye females out number males? Up to 19 Goosander from mid month in the Grove roost; John Clark tells me that some are roosting at Bramshill now, with a combined total of 30+ in the area.  A pair of Pintail took up residence on Grove Lake from 19th and were still there at the end of the month and pair of Ruddy Duck were present on Horseshoe Lake from the 17th for about a week, but sometimes difficult to locate. 

The first bird I saw at Moor Green this year was a Buzzard flying over as I got out of the car before sunrise on the 1st. Kestrel were to be seen sometimes perched on the Owl boxes – unfortunately no reports of Barn Owls this winter. Little Owls were regularly seen in the trees on the new workings; favouring the ivy covered one in the row in the NE section. 

Up to 550 Lapwing on site; a few Snipe around the lake margins, but only one report of a Green Sandpiper that I am aware of.

The Gull roost has been mainly on Horseshoe Lake, with day-time roosting on the gravel diggings to the west.  Numbers down from last month, but 6 species present including Yellow-legged Gulls and an adult Great Black-backed Gull mid month.  Black-headed Gulls have begun to hang out on Tern Island, perhaps staking a claim to a future nest site.

A pair of Stonechat have been resident just the other side of the conveyer on the new workings all month.  There seemed to be plenty of Nuthatches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers and the odd Treecreeper around the area of the Peanut feeders. A few Bullfinches are often present in the trees by Colebrook Hide, but I have yet to see them on the feeding station. 

Bunting numbers increased in the last week of the month with 5 Yellowhammer seen on the new workings and 6 Reed Bunting on the ground feeder on the 30th.

Bruce Archer