June 2009 Bird Report

Little Grebe with one well grown chick but no report of Great-crested Grebes breeding yet. The male Wigeon that has been present since the winter eventually disappeared by mid-month. Passage ducks were: a pair of Shoveler and 2 Shelducks on the 11th, 3 male Pochard on 13th and a Teal from the 24th to 26th.

Hatching of the 4 broods of Little Ringed Plover were 2 young on 4th, 4 on 9th and singles on the 10th and 19th.  Four half grown young seen and only one fully fledged young was seen by the end of the month. There could well be more to come – their camouflage is good and they are difficult to locate.

Last month’s Grey Plover remained until the morning of the 1st. Ringed Plover were seen on 6th - 7th, 12th, 27th - 28th. Last Redshank was reported on the 20th. No young appear to have survived this year. The number of loafing Lapwings peaked at 75 on the 21st. A few are locally raised young.

The return passage began with the first returning Green Sandpiper on the 16th; 3 on the 29th, and Common Sandpiper on the 18th.  A Curlew flew through on the 27th. An immature Black Tern was seen on the 26th.

Disaster struck the nesting Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns on the 3rd/4th and again on the 17th/18th – the Gull colony was reduced from an estimated 75 nests to 3 nests; and the estimated 7 Common Tern nests to just one when the Island was visited on the 23rd; probably predated by feral Mink which were seen in the area during the spring. Trapping was carried out, but none were caught.

Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Hobby and Red Kite were recorded regularly.

Two pairs of Little Owls have produced broods of 2 and 3 young which left the nests this month. The Barn Owl boxes were checked on the 11th: Stock Doves in the east box and a pair of Kestrels on eggs in the top of the west box. A Barn Owl was present in the west box, but no nest. Since a pair of Barn Owls are regularly seen hunting, a late brood is a possibility. Great Tits made use of most of the monitored boxes and fledged 214 young from 26 nests, leaving 5 nests of Blue Tits yielding 27 young. The large boxes hosted 4 Mandarin nests producing 33 young and 7 Stock Dove nests fledging 5 young.

The productivity of the smaller birds seems to be good this year with the mainly fine weather.  Whitethroats and Reed Buntings seem particularly numerous.  Yellowhammers are maintaining a territory on the workings.

My unofficial count of species recorded so far in 2009 is 125, including the escaped Snow and Barnacle Geese.

As always, please report your own sightings on the record sheets in Colebrook Hide or send them to Ian Brown, the Moor Green Bird Recorder.

Bruce Archer