Spoonbills, Deeping Lakes LWT

Originally found on the east pit by Will Bowell on 3.5.20, these two young Spoonies were refound by his father, Ray, yesterday (12.5.20). Where they have been in the meantime is anyone's guess.

Lockdown Diary: Wednesday 13.5.20

I woke to the sound of a Blackcap singing gently outside our bedroom window, this morning. It was not belting out a full song, which made me think (in my drowsy state) that it may possible that Blackcaps are nesting nearby. Or garden is full of breeding birds at the moment, so it seems. I have already mentioned the squeaky baby Great Tits and juvenile Robin, but we also have an active Magpie nest in a tree at the end of our pond (a nest which I am particularly proud of!), and Blackbirds, Collared Doves, Woodpigeons, Goldfinches and Wrens seem to be behaving in ways suggesting they have nests in or very near our garden (though I haven’t found these, yet… ).
My pride in our Magpie nest is partly because they have chosen our garden rather than nextdoor’s overgrown leylandiis (which are a terrible source of shade for our garden), in which they have nested in the last couple of years. This year’s nest is in an Alder I planted as a ‘whip’ in 2001, which has since grown to about 15-20 feet and been rather overwhelmed by Honeysuckle. If I find the right angle in the garden I can just see a square inch of Magpie feather in the dense bundle of sticks at the top of the tree, with a garland of Honeysuckle flowers around it!
Why have I not talked about Ferry Meadows CP? I came down to find I had a flat tyre on my bike, so spent the early morning mending the puncture (classic thorn job) rather than ‘exercising’. Maybe later…

Lockdown Diary: Tuesday 12.5.20

Though a cold start the cloudless sky and relatively light winds are promising a glorious mid-May day today. Such conditions usually produce very little change in terms of migrant birds, but they make for a very relaxing and enjoyable hour or so in the field. As I gazed out over Gunwade Lake (at Ferry Meadows CP), there were relatively few martins and Swallows out there. But then a new wave of House Martins and half a dozen Swifts came out over the blue.
I could watch Swifts all day. It is curious that the bird is presumably named, like Speedy Gonzalez and Usain Bolt, just because it is fast. But they are magnificent when they put a bit of determination into the odd aerial sprint. Every day recently there are about 30 House Martins around the same area of Gunwade Lake. I wonder if these are non-breeders, or just waiting to go and occupy (or build) a nest somewhere.
Talking of nesting, I was surprised yesterday to look out of the kitchen window and see a fully grown speckled baby Robin hopping around. I had no idea Robins had even laid eggs nearby, let alone fledged a family. While looking at this new speckled chap, I noticed that both Great Tit adults are frequently visiting the nest box on the side of our garage (also outside our kitchen window; and the same box in which they raised a family, last year). So, presumably there are little youngsters in that box, hungry and needing constant feeding.
This nest box is one of our most successful historically. Over the years it has has had Blue tits raising broods as well as a colony of Tree Bumblebees, one year. But, after Great Tits spent ages nibbling away at the edge of the plywood of the hole (to no avail), I decided to enlarge the hole in the box with a drill, last year, and since then the Great Tits have shown their gratitude by nesting there.
May is a funny old month. One minute you are greeting migrant birds, the next migration seems on hold and it is all about nesting birds!
POST SCRIPT: I have just noticed that Tree Bumblebees have occupied one of our other nest boxes, close to the house; one which was formerly used by Great Tits. Incidentally, this same nest box also has a nest on top of it, I think from a previous year’s Robins.

Song Thrush and Nightingale duet (x2)

Lockdown Diary: Monday 11.5.20

It was still cold (very cold!) this morning and again hirundine numbers were a big feature of my early morning cycle. There were relatively few singing birds today (they like a bit of warmth!), but I did hear a shouty Cetti’s Warbler near the bridge over the Nene called Bluebell Bridge (a small suspension bridge, which has lovely views along the river in both directions). Other than that, a fly-by Kingfisher was the most exciting bird of the day.
It feels good to be back in our warm kitchen, where the computer lives!

Lockdown Diary: Sunday 10.5.20

Brrrr! Today was a return to almost wintery conditions, with an ugly north-easterly wind. The main influence was to push down big numbers of hirundines (Swallows and martins) down to the two main lakes at Ferry Meadows (called Gunwade and Overton). Overton was covered in Sand Martins (which nest nearby on an island on the smaller Lynch Lake, a few metres away) and Gunwade was carpetted in House Martins and Swallows.
Ferry Meadows has a great record for the rare Red-rumped Swallow, a southern European visitor; with four seen there in the last decade. So my chief target was finding one of these elegant beauties. no such luck!
Meantime, back home the Swifts are in our itte close and look again to be interested in the roof of the house two doors up. We put up Swift next boxes under the eaves of our house in the early 2000s and have never had them nesting yet…

Lockdown Diary: Saturday 9.5.20

A beautiful morning in the park , and I took the opportunity to do some sound recording of one of the Nightingales which have been delighting anyone who hears them for the last couple of weeks. Here is a recording I took this morning of a duet between a Song Thrush and a Nightingale, with accompanying Woodpigeon and the odd rattle from a Lesser Whitethroat.

Lockdown Diary: Friday 8.5.20

A relatively quiet time in the park, at least with regards to movement of migrant birds. But it is striking again how many warblers and other songsters we seem to be having this year. In every reedy area (and Peterborough is blessed with lots of reedy fringed ditches and channels), there is a positive racket of Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers. There are are almost too many singing for your mind’s sanity! It is a right old confusion of continuous loud, jumbled song. Superb. It always amazes me how many people go for a walk in the country with headphones or earphones on. They are missing the real glory of spring!
Also, great news, is that the Swifts are back in our neighbourhood of the city, screaming away as only they know how. Also superb!

Lockdown Diary: Friday 7.5.20

It was a lovely sunny day in the country park, again today. And there were two clear highlights of my morning’s exercise cycle wildlife-watching session. The first was my first sighting this year of baby Lapwings, two of them, on farmland just over the river (Nene) from Ferry Meadows itself, viewed from the path following the side of the Nene Valley Railway. The chicks were about the size of a Common Sandpiper and very cute!
My second highlight was during a spell trying to see a reported Green Hairstreak butterfly in a little sun trap area of FMCP. I failed, but I did have my first sighting (at least that I can remember) of a very small day-flying moth called the Small Yellow Underwing. A real little beauty of a moth made my day!

Small Yellow Underwing. This tiny day-flying noctuid looks rather like one of the Pyrausta micro moths. Today was the first time I remember seeing one; it was in a sunny corner of FMCP, near Lynch Bridge. Delightful little fellow!

Lockdown Diary: Wednesday 6.5.20

As it is another sunny day, it felt like it was going to be more of the same, this morning on my cycle to Ferry Meadows CP and back again. I was enjoying listening to the two Nightingales still singing away in a battle for territory, when, at 7.25am, I got a text from a friend saying he had found a Whinchat, not far away, by the Nene Valley Railway (a local steam line). I was in the scene in a few minutes and we soon relocated this distant female Whinchat, but it almost as quickly slipped from view.
It was in a rough and ‘weedy’ ditch which heads out into an arable field and has attracted a decent few Whinchats (and the odd Redstart) over the years, particularly in autumn. I carry a small scope in my rucksack, and balanced it on my bike to watch the chat (before it vanished… ).
A few minutes later, what appeared to be the Whinchat perched up a few metres from where we last saw it, on the top of an Elder bush. But, when I scoped it, it wasn’t a female Whinchat at all, it was a pristine, male! After a couple of minutes it, too vanished, and neither bird was seen again! It is odd how birds which habitually perch on the top of bushes, trees, fence lines and tall weedy plants, can disappear with such ease!

Lockdown Diary: Tuesday 5.5.20

It was back down to Ferry Meadows CP for me today, though it was not a day of great change (the weather has been a bit too nice!). Perhaps the most remarkable thing at the moment is the sheer number of warblers in the park, particularly Sylvia warblers. Whitethroats are everywhere, Blackcaps are very common, but the real stars of the show are the huge numbers of singing Garden Warblers. Their glorious bubbling warbles seem to be coming out of every tree. In fact, today, I counted five singing males in the 100 metres or so between Bluebell Bridge and Ham Bridge, in the park.
The other highlight, for me, was a Cuckoo, which seems to have a set circuit around the 'reserve’ area of the country park, then over the River Nene to the nearby golf course (and its high poplar trees), then back again, even singing ‘cuckoo’ as it flies.

Lockdown Diary: Monday 4.5.20

Well, this was one lockdown day when I didn’t leave the house at all., not even to go into the garden. Sundays’s exertions made me somewhat tired, so I basically lounged around at home. My wildlife highlight, indeed, was hearing the singing Great Tit outside our bedroom window.

Lockdown Diary: Sunday 3.5.20

I took a slightly longer cycle out with my 18-year-old son, Eddie, today. We toured Ferry Meadows, but then headed a bit north of the park to the airstrip of the Milton Estate which is a grassy strip of a couple of km, near the village of Ailsworth. The best thing there were a pair of Grey Partridges (in a similar spot to a week or so ago). These are pretty scarce birds around Peterborough, and to find them on a cycle ride was great.
We then ventured a bit further north, in a bit of a loop and were able to see both Wheatear and a glorious male Whinchat on our cycle. This is the peak time for these latter beauties which pass through the Peterborough area in very small numbers in early May. Sadly, I didn’t have my camera with me for this ride, but I can assure you it was a special bird!

Lockdown Diary: Saturday 2.5.20

Today was back to quiet normality after the thrill of finding a Wood Warbler yesterday. There was not further sign of this migrant. Instead the park was much as normal, with the Nightingales still blasting away their songs seemingly in competition, on Coney Meadow. The number of Swifts is increasing daily, and House Martins are at times the most frequent hirundines (apart from the Sand Martins visiting their colony).

Mike Weedon · NightingaleFM2ndCMbird200430 0422.WAV

This is the second Nightingale singing on Coney Meadow, Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough, this spring.

Lockdown Diary: Friday 1.5.20

Being officially on holiday, I decided to have a slightly more extended vigil around Ferry Meadows CP this morning. I also knew I would be around a while, as I had to take my bike to have some minor repairs, and as it happens I was booked in to the bike shop on the road into the park itself (luckily still open during the lockdown).
Things were going well with the addition of a singing Reed Warbler (113 for my FM 2020 list [FM = Ferry Meadows CP]), and I had racked up a decent 62 species, before I had to go to the bike place, including a family of Grey Wagtails with full-grown youngsters (which seems really early), Nuthatch, lesser Whitethroat and a sighting of a Red Kite still sitting on its nest.
But as I was leaving the park into Ham Lane, I heard a brief snatch of song to my right. I stopped and listened again: “Probably a misheard bit of Wren song”. But it sang again and it was unmistakable, the spinning silver sixpence song of a Wood Warbler. Wood Warbler is easily the best bird I have seen in the park this year, and easily the best bird I have found locally all year. They are seriously scarce passage birds through Peterborough; for years they were one of my main bogey birds. But now (in 20 years) I have found two (and seen a further three). This is my second for Ferry Meadows and only my first singer there. What a great bird, to liven up any day!

Wood Warbler, Ferry Meadows CP, Peterborough, 1.5.20 (Mike Weedon)

'Spinning silver' sixpence song

'Anxiety' call

Lockdown Diary: Thursday 30.4.20

A strange thing happened today. I went to check on the singing Nightingale (on Coney Meadows, a dense, bushy part of the Ferry Meadows CP complex), and perhaps to get some more recordings. But the bird appeared to have moved to the extreme south-eastern corned or the Hawthorn stand (whereas it had previously favoured the north-west). I figured that after nearly 10 days, it was shaping up to leave, and having a last hurrah from a slightly different part of the potential breeding habitat.
But as I was trying to get in position to make a recording, I was sure I heard another one singing in the distance. And I did. The original north-western corner bird was still in place; we have two singing Nightingales on the small Coney Meadows area. Having not had any here for years, suddenly… I am trying to resist… like buses… Oh dear.
A flock of 15 Swifts dropped down over Gunwade for a short while. And the other highlight for me, today, was flyby drake Mandarin (112 for Ferry Meadows in 2020).

Lockdown Diary: Wednesday 29.4.20

Wednesday proved a much better day for ‘exercise birding’ in these here parts. The weather was brooding and drizzly, with low cloud first thing, which brought down a flock of 7 Arctic Terns from the sky ‘like angels’ as one of my friends put it! They stuck together closely, patrolling up and down Gunwade Lake (the largest of the three lakes) for 25 minutes, before disappearing back into the clouds.
Unusually, for Arctic Terns (which are strictly passage birds here in Peterborough), this flock were calling, with sweet clipped contact calls and light, bell-like trills, quite unlike the harsher notes of Common Terns.
Half an hour later, a Whimbrel whizzed by, heading roughly north-north-east. This non-calling bird was a local (Peterborough area) year tick for me as well as a my 110th bird for Ferry Meadows CP in 2020.
My 111th bird was not far behind, with my first Hobby of the season scaring the living daylights out of all the local hirundines (of which their were hundreds feeding over the water, with particularly high numbers of House Martins).
Other highlights of a bit of a vigil looking over Gunwade were a couple of Common Sandpipers, a single Swift, which buzzed right past my head (not obeying social distancing!), and the song of the Nightingale a couple of hundred metres away on Coney Meadow (present since 21st). Ooh, I also had a Cuckoo singing, as I cycled home.

Lockdown Diary: Tuesday 28.4.20

Today was a real stinker, with respect to weather, so I hardly poked my head out of the window for most of the day. However, a man has to exercise, and as the rain cleared a bit, I popped down to Ferry Meadows CP on my bike in the early evening. And my reward was a couple of Arctic Terns mixing with half a dozen Common Terns. Arctics look so clean and elegant, and side by side with Commons, the contrasts were obvious.

Lockdown Diary: Sunday 26.4.20

The ouzel appeared to have finally left its field. I gave it a while but it never popped out. So, instead, I went for a bit of a bike tour to see what I could encounter. I was lucky to find three Grey partridges in the local farmland and also bumped into a couple of male Wheatears. But then a friend called me to say he had found some new-in Turtle Doves and a very early Spotted flycatcher at nearby Bainton pits. So, I extended my cycle and went up to see the flycatcher and to bathe in the glorious sound of a putting Turtle Dove. There was a small flock of Fieldfares present in the same area, and I think it is the first time I have ever seen Spotted Flycatcher (a traditionally late summer migrant) on the same day as wintering Fieldfare.

Wheatear, near Peterborough, 26.4.20 (Mike Weedon)

Lockdown Diary: Saturday 25.4.20

‘My’ female Ring Ouzel was still in place at the really ‘ouzely’ field it has been in for the last week. Other than that the highlight for me was adding Reed Warbler to my local year list. This is the last of the regular warblers in, around here, and a welcome year tick. personally, I prefer the haphazard semi-virtuoso rhythmless song of the Sedge Warbler to the rhythmic equivalent of the Reed. But they are both great songs.

Lockdown Diary: Friday 24.4.20

Instead of heading to Ferry Meadows CP, this morning, I cycled back to the north end of the Milton estate, between Bretton, Peterborough, and the village of Marholm. The idea was to check the field which held a Ring Ouzel last weekend, and see if any new ouzels had come along. After a few minutes of staring at this field a Mistle Thrush popped out to feed, then a couple of Blackbirds. And after about ten minutes, out popped a Ring Ouzel. It wasn’t a new one, though, but the same rather dull (for a Ring Ouzel) female that my son Ed and I saw on Sunday!
In other news, back at the office (our kitchen in Peterborough), I have heard both Blackcap and Chiffchaff singing, this morning.

Lockdown Diary: Thursday 23.4.20

I am in that weird time period which only happens every decade or more. It is that time during which I have Cuckoo on my year list but haven’t heard a Cuckoo yet! This morning while walking and pushing my bike down the side of a hedgerow down at Ferry Meadows CP (looking for Redstarts), a Cuckoo flew over, silently. I watched it fly off and never saw it again (nor heard it!). So, that takes my Ferry Meadows CP year list to 109 species. Not too bad.

Morning webs, Castor Mill My Peterborough area year list is at 150, but I am trying not to think of that too much, to avoid feeling ‘The Grip’.
Other highlights this morning, included the continuing presence fo the singing Nightingale on Coney Meadows; the continuing sitting of the Red Kites on their nests; three Cetti’s Warblers singing; and a few more Sedge Warblers, Garden Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats than in recent days.
I still await a Redstart!

Speckled Wood feeding on Garlic Mustard, our garden

Water Rail from our garden, night of 11.4.20

Moorhen over our garden, 11.4.20