For Saturday 18 March Steve, the warden of Denso Marston Nature Reserve, had organised a birdsong walk to be led by Andrew and Paul; with Steve promising to keep quiet – we all know how he likes his jokes.
I took my camera along and also stayed back for an hour or so after the walk to see if I could get more/better photos. The guides did a great job and everyone enjoyed it.
As usual click on an image below to view it larger in its gallery carousel.
Several birds were identified during the walk that I did not get photos of even on a re-visit on Sunday. Namely:- Carrion Crow, Starling, Pheasant, Song Thrush, Blue Tit, Jay, Greenfinch, Common Buzzard, Mistle Thrush, Goldfinch, Goldcrest, Cormorant and Stock Dove. Mmm! That’s quite a few I didn’t get. The names are taken from Steve’s list.
I have organised the photos by plants, fungi (ID needed, I did think Galerina but that is September time. There aren’t many fungi around in March so I thought ID would be easy. I should know better.) and other non-bird things followed by another gallery of birds.
It was great to see and take photos of all the things above. The Crocuses, Daffodills, Comma butterfly, Tree Bumblebee, Early Bumblebee. There is a photo of some leaves and I don’t know what plant they belong to. Edit: I have now been back and asked an expert. The leaves are of Lords & Ladies (Arum maculatum).
The gallery below starts with a Chiffchaff. It’s a rubbish photo but I am pleased to get sight of one on the reserve. I could hear several on the other side of the river so I was lucky to hear and then locate this one. Apart from the racket from the Canada Geese the noisy ones were Dunnock, Wren and Robin. The Siskins were high up in the trees pecking away at the base of catkins so there was a cascade of them falling to the ground.
The noise from the birds is to mark their territory and to announce themselves to attract a mate. A Wren looked as though it had got its nesting hole sorted. It flew back and forth several times.
Near the reserves hut a couple of male Mallard were having a good scrap, one of them was half a pair that are often around the hut and have even been inside.
The Great Tit looked as though it was eyeing up one of the nest boxes. It also had its eye on me so I walked on so it could go about its business in peace.
I saw Treecreepers several times but one of them seemed to be spending time on only a couple of trees. I would normally expect them to creep up a tree feeding and then fly down to the next to creep up and do that along quite a few trees. I then noticed that this one kept going back to a particular area in a split tree. Inspection with binoculars showed that it was going in and out of a crack in the tree – a nest hole? Or possibly a good source of insects? Or both?
Though the Mandarin Duck is a water bird it nests in trees and I guess they have to locate suitable sites to use. Two pairs of them could be seen across the river and at one time two males were on the same branch up in a tree. Were they checking out the same neighbourhood to be neighbours or housemates or were they going to argue over the same locations.
Great Spotted Woodpeckers could be heard drumming. I spotted the first one drumming at the top of a thin broken tree with it making the typical sound. I know I have seen them on many occasions but seeing it at the top of the tree made me realise that they don’t drum lower down on big thick trees. I guess most thick trees would be too solid to make the right noise.
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