Murmurs at Attenborough
January 19th
On a perfect sunny but cold January morning five babes met at Attenborough full of anticipation about what we might spot. Two Helens and Jo arrived early(eager to comply with the schedule so carefully arranged by Helen J)with Maggie and Pam not far behind.
Aye up me duck
Sadly Alison had to go to the vets followed by a trip to watch Derby County fail to score against the mighty Bristol City so wasn't able to join us and Lynn also had a busy day but we all sent her virtual hugs.
Equipment check
All in working order
If you look through the telescope Jo you might be able to see a swan!
Yes - it's a swan with a goose on its head!
After checking out the birds around the visitor centre and a lesson on the difference between a stock dove and a pigeon, the next stop was the café for a warming bowl of soup and a good catch up.
After checking with the centre staff Helen J's carefully laid plans were thrown into disarray when we discovered that the main car park gates are closed at 5pm and as the main aim of our afternoon was to try and catch the starling murmuration we had to have a quick rethink as we didn't fancy getting locked in for the night.
Fuelled by soup and coffee and having made full use of the facilities we set off to see what we could see.
Look - it's over there.....
Oh - there it is....
Oh - they are flying away - perhaps we are too noisy...
A much needed rest after all that spotting
What a beauty - definitely next years Christmas card!
On entering the bird hide there was much excitement - not for the reasons some of us might anticipate - but the elusive and secretive water rail had been spotted
Can you spot the water rail?
Is this him?
....or this?
We all kept unnaturally quiet so as not to disturb the serious twitchers and the water rail and we did all manage to spot him in the end, if only he was a bit more flamboyant he would be easier to identify.
You can always rely on a heron to pose for a photograph
The red hatted Kenworthy also poses very nicely.
For a moment it was just like James Norton was there with us!
Not up to Pam's photographic standard but I think the bullfinch was bird of the day.
With a good haul of birds spotted we made our way back to the car park and drove down to Beeston Marina to get ourselves in prime position for the much anticipated murmuration.
Best foot forwards...
Quick look - a new teashop - lets get in there before it closes!
Just checking that it really was a water rail...
The sun was just starting to set as we got to the marina but we decided that there is always time for a quick cup of tea. Pam replaced her batteries and was soon powered up for the next stage and we headed down to where we hoped to be able to get a good view of the starlings coming in to roost.
It took us a while to find our spot but we were reassured by the presence of other slightly mad people.
It got darker and darker.....
and darker.....
but eventually they did arrive
It seems that we weren't in quite the right place after all and that the show was much better over near the visitor centre you would think those pesky starlings would have realised all the planning that we had put in but at least we did see a bit of a murmur so were able to head home happy after a lovely day.
This is what we had hoped to see:
And finally our bird list for the day:
blackbird
blackheaded gull (raft of 107ish!)
blue tit
bullfinch
canada goose
collared dove
coot
cormorant
crow
dunnock
water rail (GB first and our target bird for the last two
years!)
eygyptian goose
gadwall
goldeneye
goosander
great crested grebe
great tit
grey heron
greylag goose
jackdaw
kestrel
lapwing
lesser black backed gull (apparently a GB first??!,
clearly seen, but not recorded)
little grebe
magpie
mallard
moorhen
mute swan
robin
house sparrow ( or a new species.. a ‘bush sparrow’!)
starling
stock dove (GB first)
teal
tufted duck
wigeon
wood pigeon
36 in total, a good start
to the year. Our running total since
records began is now 96.. getting close to our century!
Unfortunately Jo, whilst you may have seen a
gull with yellow legs, it was a lesser black backed gull, which does have yellow
legs, so, sort of right.
A practice
murmuration it was, so will have to try again for the full starling monty!
Our
new target bird has been set by Maggie: a bittern, but that will probably be
too boring for one of our gelly birders
