Just locking up tonight and was very surprised by a new arrival on the large pond.
Very excited to see an adult Otter cruising around the pond, not that Charles and Camilla were too impressed, lots of hissing going on.
It was getting dark so the pictures are not the best, but here are a few more:-
I’m not sure if it is still around the pond, I have put a camera out with night vision so we will see in the morning if it is hanging around or if it was just here on a day trip!
A record today, for our bird ringing crew, with 97 birds ringed.
The day started with a glorious sunrise.
We also had a really nice mix of species with 18 different ones.
The breakdown was as follows:-
Blue Tit. 20
Coal Tit 3
Great Tit 2
Marsh Tit 2
Blackbird 4
Redwing 1
Song thrush 1
Wood Pigeon 1
Robin 3
Goldcrest 1
Bullfinch 1
Goldfinch 8
Chaffinch. 1
Wren. 2
Tree Sparrow 2
Dunnock 6
Reed Bunting 16
Siskin. 23
Worth getting up early for.
This week Northumbria Waters contractors were back on site to start work on resolving our leaky pipe problem. A large diameter pipe, carrying rainwater run off from the local industrial estate, passes under the reserve. This pipe is over 70 years old and is leaking at various joints. Our problem is it runs under our large pond at Dunces Corner. This means that the leaky joints are leaking water out but leaky water in from my pond! This was noticed last year and a repair was done, however, further leaks were found so they are back to finish the job (hopefully).
Now we await for the next set of contractors who will begin to patch the leaky joints.
Despite the digger and jackhammer noise Charles and Camilla don’t seem too bothered.
Autumn and winter are the time where we do most of our work out in the reserve. We have just completed three projects and I must thank Augustine and John for helping complete these.
The wall has two functions, to keep the vegetation back from the hide and also to act as habitat for insects, rodents and amphibians.
2. We have done a little renovation of the second boardwalk next to Vera’s hide.
This should last a little longer than the wooden platform we replaced.
3. Down by our leaky dams I built a couple of small bridges over the stream to allow slightly safer access to the dams.
Yes our wicked little black and white vandals have been at again, churning up about 70 metres of one of my beautifully maintained Woodchip paths. There must have been some juicy earthworms brought up by the recent rain, too tempting for our little badgers
A bit of time required with the rake to repair the path, with the cold weather coming I suppose the work will keep me warm!
I arrived this morning at the reserve to be greeted by two old friends.
Charles and Camilla are back after nearly 5 months spent on the Wansbeck raising their youngsters. I’m not sure where the youngsters are now, they maybe still on the Wansbeck or they may have been taken away and dumped by mum and dad.
Hopefully this means they are back to start a new family of cygnets next spring.
Our bird ringing group were in yesterday and had a successful session, catching a nice variety of birds.
Marsh Tits
Tree Sparrow
Tree Creeper
Wren
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Yellowhammer
We also caught Goldcrest, Blackbird, Coal Tit, a total of fifty birds ringed.
Today I arrived at Dunces Corner Pond to see another swan on the pond. It was a pleasant surprise to see this was a Whooper swan, which is a new species to the reserve.
Now our recently arrived Mute swan has not been impressed by the new arrival and has spent most of the day harassing the Whooper.
At one point it became a bit brutal and the mute had the whooper penned into the reeds and was pecking feathers out of it. Hopefully things will have calmed down by tomorrow!
It’s that time of year where all sorts are popping out the woodwork, literally.
I’m no expert but I have tried to give a name to most of the ones I have seen.
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