Catherton Common. 19 January, 2014

With it being such a good weather forecast for today, dry, bright and light wind, I decided to head to Catherton Common.  The common is now owned and managed by the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, and a lot of conservation work has taken place under their tenure.

I parked at Catherton Gate and took the track, which was very muddy, down towards Cramer Gutter, which is also managed by Shropshire Wildlife Trust.

A flock of about ten meadow pipits flew over, in their characteristic jumpy flight, and landed on a cleared area of heather, which is crossed leaved heather here.

I was startled  by a green woodpecker which was calling loudly with its pipping, piercing call, which ended in its distinctive laughing call.  A bit further down a saw a great spotted woodpecker fly across my path in an undulated flight pattern which is so reminiscent of this species.  When I got to Cramer Gutter a woodpecker was drumming from one of the trees along the brook.  It was a muffled drumming sound, not like great spotted woodpecker's loud knocking.  I tried my hardest to see the bird, hoping it was a lesser spotted woodpecker (a major rarity nowadays) but failed to connect with it. If I had been lucky that would have completed the trio of British woodpeckers!

I had a look around Cramer but not much was doing except a lone highland cattle grazing.

One of the muddy tracks by Cramer Gutter

                                             

View of Catherton from Cramer Gutter

                                               

Brooke at Cramer Gutter

I walked back to Catherton Gate and decided to drive to the western end of Catherton Common.

There is a road that goes to Cleeton St. Mary and on the right is an area known as Lubberland.  I parked up and scanned the gorse (western gorse) for any signs of bird life.  I was soon rewarded with a pair of stonechats perched up on the gorse in their characteristic manner.

Lubberland with sheep in foreground

                                             

Titterstone from Catherton Common

Wyre Forest. January 11, 2014

I visited the Shropshire side of the Wyre Forest this afternoon looking for common crossbills (loxia curvirostra) which have been reported there recently.  The birds (flocks of up to 30) have been seen in the Postenplain area of the forest.  They have been feeding on the larch trees cones which are abundant in that area.

I managed to see a flock of about ten birds high up in the larches and spruce trees, but they are very flighty and mobile so only brief views were had.  But those views were worth it with the males in their red plumage and the females (or immature birds) greenish-yellow.  Of course, it's their name (and Latin name, see above) that draws you to them and makes them unique in the ornithological world. The mandibles cross at the end which enables them to extract the seeds from conifer cones. Crossbills are the only birds that are able to do that and so have a food source all to themselves.  Sometimes, though, there is a cone crop failure in Scandinavia and further east and birds then 'erupt' and move west and south in search of food.  That's what happened this winter and thousands of birds have been seen all over the country.

These enigmatic birds also have a distinct flight call.  To me it sounds like 'chip-chip', but to others it is a 'zip-zip' or 'glip-glip' call.  Unusually some of the birds were singing their high fluting and twittering song which is not unlike a greenfinch. Crossbills are one the earliest nesting birds and so their singing could be a indicative of that.

With those 'eruptions' also brings some of the rarer species and this year has been no exception.  Among the common crossbills in the Wyre  up to three two-barred crossbills have also been seen.  When they were first found in December I went to see them and managed brief but good views of one of them - a female.

As their names implies, they have two white wing bars which make them stand out from the common crossbills.  Even though I didn't see any this time they had been spotted by other birdwatchers earlier on in the day - early morning is probably the best time to see them.

Felled logs close to crossbill site.

Severn Valley Country Park (SVCP). 4 January 2014

I had a short stroll around Severn Valley Country Park (SVCP) this afternoon.  The weather was a bit gloomy, but at least it was dry for a change.

There is a conservation area with a small reed-fringed (phragmites) pool and a stream running through it.  On the edge of the pool are some alder trees were I was delighted to find a flock of siskins feeding on the catkins in their upside down characteristic manner. At first there was only about ten birds, they were then joined by another flock of thirty or more.  I soon got into them with my binoculars and could see immature, female and male birds.  The males looked stunning in their yellow-green and black plumage.

I moved on to were there are some hides overlooking a marshy area and some bird feeders.  Blue, great and long-tailed tit were feeding on the food that had been put out.

Even in the poor light conditions, the great tits stood out from the crowd.  They are the largest of the British tit family and have a black band running down their yellow bellies, which gives them the quaint look of wearing a waistcoat.  Their glossy blue-black crown and nape contrast well with their white cheeks.  The rest of the plumage is a mixture of yellow and green, making it quite a pleasant little bird to see.

The great tit has the widest repertoire of all the British tits, if not of all the song birds.  The most commonest call to listen out for in winter is the chaffinch like 'chink-chink'; as we progress into early spring listen out for the males diagnostic 'teacher-teacher' song.

I ended the day seeing a sparrow hawk hedge-hopping towards the river - no doubt looking for its supper.

Dudmaston (NT) 1 January, 2014

Despite the stormy conditions, I decided to have an afternoon walk at Dudmaston Hall today. The Hall is closed during the winter, but there is limited access using public footpaths and permissive ways.

When I got to the corner of Brim Pool, I was surprised to see a large conifer had come down and had fallen across the main trail.  No doubt it was a casualty of the recent gales and high winds. I tried to put a specific name to the conifer, but could only come up with Douglas fir or western hemlock.  I am not, though, absolutely sure (see photos below) and so any comments would be welcome.

I was equally surprised as to how short the roots were for such a large tree and how shallow the root base was in the ground.

After photographing the fallen tree, I stepped down into the oval hole where the tree had stood for who knows how many years.  The soil was sandy and stuck to the bottom of the roots like it was part of the tree and was easily taller then me - i'm over six foot!  I managed to get a small stone out from the base which had caught my eye because of its colours. I kept it for my stone collection.

I mused over the history and world events that had passed through the life of the tree.  I also pondered over who had planted it and had dug the hole to put the sapling in place all those years ago. I was now standing in that same spot, the first person to since all those years ago.  I somehow had a connection with that person, an existential experience if there is such a thing.

I guessed the tree was over a hundred years old.  If I was right, the planter could have been in the First World War - did he come back?  It then dawned on me it was the first day of the centenary year of that war- 1914-2014!

The fallen conifer across the trail.

                                                                         

The root base.

                                                                 

Close up of root base.

                                                             

                                       



I moved on from the fallen tree and continued my walk.  It wasn't long before I noticed a flock of tits, coal and blue, coming down to feed on the trail ahead ahead of me.  It seemed unusual to see tits, especially coal tit, feeding on the ground.  They are normally high up in the conifers and only make their presence known by their calls.  I could only guess that due to the high winds and gales recently seeds and other edible debris had blown off the nearby trees and this is what they were picking at from the mud.

There is also a large stand of bamboo along the edge of one of the paths and next to a reedy part of the pool.  I am not sure whether it is purposely planted by the estate or it is a self-set garden 'escape' exotic. Some of the blue and coal tits were feeding at its base, which made me wonder if something had blown off the bamboo and they were taking advantage of it.

Bamboo.

                                                                   

Close up of bamboo stem.