Birds seen at Moor Green Lakes during   OCTOBER 2006

October is an ambiguous month with wintering species arriving in numbers, but ducks beginning to show breeding plumage and courting behaviour. Two Great Crested Grebes were performing the “weed dance” on 5th and a brood of young Mallard were seen on Grove Lake on 21st. Up to 51 Barnacle Geese have been present, all that remains of the feral flock, along with four Snow Geese.  There are a couple of odd geese; one appears to be a Barnacle x Snow, and the other a Barnacle x Ross’ Goose.

I only count the ducks if I’m bored – the maximum counts I have are 173 Wigeon on the 25th, 38 Teal, 22 Shoveler and 18 Pochard. The mild weather seems to be delaying the arrival of Goldeneye and Goosander.

Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel are resident. On the 8th, I came across a Sparrowhawk with a struggling thrush on Lower Sandhurst Rd at 06:42 in the morning – it was still quite dark. Shows how early they can hunt if hungry. The local pair of Red-legged Partridges was seen on the 29th and Water Rails have been heard from Colebrook hide.

The habitat of the open diggings is proving attractive to waders with this month’s highlight being five juvenile Little Stints that were found by Kevin Carter on the 1st. They were present for a couple of hours before flying off as a heavy shower arrived. A Common Sandpiper was present on 14th and 15th. Green Sandpipers were present all month with high counts of eight on the 14th and five on the 29th. A Dunlin showed up on the 25th.

Sometime around the middle of the month the local Gull roost moved to Colebrook Lake North. More than 700 Gulls arrive at dusk and leave before dawn. These are nearly all adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls, but there are also Common Gulls and a few Yellow-legged Gulls with them. A smaller number of Gulls congregate on the open diggings in the afternoons.  On the 14th there was the first winter Great Black-backed Gull and on the 16th a Yellow-legged Gull. Black-headed Gulls are ever present in variable numbers.

100 House Martins were reported on the 8th and I saw a Swallow on the 16th – the same day that I saw my first Redwings of the winter.

At least four Stonechats have arrived for the winter and Chiffchaffs are still present, sometimes singing, often moving with the flocks of Long-tailed Tits.  Siskins have been seen from the middle of the month, and the Linnet flock on the new workings is up to 50+.

On the 31st I saw my first Mink in this area – not a good sign for breeding birds.

Report compiled by Bruce Archer