Garden Gallinula and Orrell Water Park Dipper

I had an unexpected first for the garden earlier in the week when I spotted a juvenile Moorhen feeding under one of the bird feeders. It has been quite a long time since I recorded a new species in the garden, when I say garden I mean small front garden, and Moorhen isn't one that ever seemed likely. Moorhens breed on the small lakes in Orrell Water Park across the road from where I live so don't have to wander far but there is a mature and quite dense belt of trees that surrounds the park along with the park's perimeter wall, and then there is a fairly busy road to negotiate to reach my front garden and the garden itself is surrounded by dense evergreen hedging. Those features have successfully prevented Moorhens from reaching my garden in the 20 plus years I have lived here, not to mention the local cat population and general levels of human activity.

I didn't manage to get any photographs on that first day but the Moorhen has been seen numerous times since and I managed to get some record shots yesterday (15/11/2020). These regular appearances in the garden beg the question - is it commuting between the garden and the ponds in the park or has it taken up temporary residence in the garden. As I detailed earlier there is no easy route for for a bird like a Moorhen to get between the garden and the ponds in the park even if a mixture of walking and flight is used. Temporary residence seems just as unlikely given the size of the garden and the nature of the neighbouring properties but it has been seen in a tall conifer hedge at the back of a neighbours property and in a tall conifer in the front garden so it knows how to get out of the way when people are around. Either way anyone who knows my garden will find this record just as unexpected and exceptional as I have.

The House Sparrows don't seem too impressed with this new visitor.

The Moorhen wasn't the only first I had in the past week as on Friday the 13th no less I saw a Dipper on Orrell Water Park which was my first record for the site. I had heard a second hand report of one being seen there last winter but I didn't know how reliable that sighting was and I didn't connect with it on my regular walks back then. There is very little suitable habitat for Dippers within the park boundary and the site is heavily disturbed with walkers and dog walkers, with me being one of them, so this is going to be a difficult species to see for anyone who keeps a tick list for Orrell Water Park. I didn't expect to see one despite the report of one being seen last winter so two good firsts for me in the same week. 

Almost dipped on first pulli.

I had a late one last night and when the forecast for heavy rain didn't materialise this morning I was left it in a bit of a quandary as to what to do. Anyway I finally sent a text to Wayne mid-morning and suggested that I show him one of the potential Dipper sites with a view to nest recording if they were present. We got there at around mid-day but there were no obvious signs of Dipper activity. We went downstream and put a net across the river while we surveyed the areas both up and down stream.

We hadn't been there that long when we realised that a Robin was feeding young close by. After a bit of watching back and forth we quickly realised it was feeding young in the bank near one of the net poles. The first search found the nest site and it was in within two feet of the site of a Blackbird's nesting site that I found last spring and in very similar circumstances too. Five pulli Robins were duly ringed and were Wayne's and our first pulli ringed for the year. Only a  thousand pullus to go so no pressure there Wayne as these don't count towards that total (private joke).

Judging by its development this Robin chick will be 5 days old.

First pulli or should I say pullus (no masters of Latin here) of the year ringed were capped off in fine style with a Dipper, and what a powerful bird they are. These Water Ouzels are something else and it was magic to see Wayne's appreciation of a new species when it found its way into the net.

On  woodland flowery note it was also nice to see Wood Anemones in full flower and Bluebells not that far behind. Spring is really here.

Lazy Sunday

I had my first decent lie-in for months this morning and only got up at around 9am. After lounging about for a while I decided I should get out for a couple hours as it was forecast to rain in the afternoon. It was too late and too breezy to go to any of my usual ringing sites so I went to a very sheltered stretch of the river Douglas to see if there were any juvenile Dippers about.

I had just made my way down to the river when a Blackbird flew out of a steep section of bank. I thought the Blackbird may have been foraging but something made me have a closer look. On a earth ledge about three quarters up the bank there was a nest with 4 small young. The young were about 2 days old as they were still naked and blind. The outer part of the nest was largely constructed from small pieces of root which helped to camouflage the nest.



Spot the Blackbird nest

 

2 day old Blackbirds

Nest location. Did you spot it?

This bank is quite unstable and prone to collapse when the river levels are high but it looks like this section had collapsed not too long ago so hopefully there will be no further collapses for a while. I have found a few Blackbird nests on ledges in outbuildings but this is the first I have found in a river bank. I will check the nest in a few days to see how they are getting on.

I put a net across another section of the river while I checked out the areas up and down stream. I had seen Dippers carrying food a couple of weeks ago so I hoped the nesting attempt had been successful and the young had fledged by now. I didn't see any young Dippers or any adults carrying food but I did see a Grey Wagtail carrying food and a Mallard with some recently hatched ducklings. I was just about to pack up because the first few drops of rain had arrived when this Dipper turned up in the net. It was a new bird and its wing length showed it was a male.

male Dipper

The rain put a stop to any further survey work so I returned home having spent an interesting couple of hours on the river. I then spent the rest of the day as I started it and just lounged about. It is nice to slow life down and be really lazy now and again and that certainly sums up today.

Morning ends with a quick Dip...

I went up to Haigh this morning and was joined by John G. There was more of a breeze than we would have liked as the baited site isn’t sheltered from the wind when there is any easterly component to it. However it was very overcast so we decided to give it a go and put up three nets.

The first net round only produced 8 birds which was less than expected given the snow cover and cold conditions of the past few days. In fact there was a surprising lack of birds in general, especially tits, with only 1 Great Tit and 1 Coal Tit caught or seen! Goldfinches were largely conspicuous by their absence with none coming to the feeders and only a couple being heard flying overhead.

The catching rate didn’t improve and the easterly breeze started to pick up so we packed up at 10am.

Given the time we decided to go to another site a short drive away to look for Dippers. We put a 30ft net across the river and then checked the area out, flushing 2 Woodcock in the process but seeing little else. A little while later a Dipper was in the net and quickly extracted. It was a new bird and not one of the pair I had ringed at this same location last spring. A nice end to an otherwise lacklustre morning.

Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

Ringing totals for 20/01/13 with retraps in brackets.
Blackbird 1 (7)
Blue Tit 1 (7)
Brambling 2 (1)
Chaffinch 3
Coal tit - (1)
Dipper 1
Great Tit – (1)
Greenfinch 1 (1)
Robin 3 (3)
Total 33 (12 new and 21 retraps)