From the Newsletter [1]…

Jake's Progress

In my last article I told you about the bird boxes we put up. Nothing has gone in any of them yet but there seems to be a House Sparrow going in and out of a gap in our roof. The gap is right next to my bedroom and I heard one of them when I woke up the other morning so I think that they are going to make a nest in our roof. The other news with the sparrows is that they have attracted a Sparrowhawk. We often see one flying around but the other day one flew into a bush on the front garden, scattering sparrow and blackbirds everywhere. Unfortunately I wasn't there to see it myself but my dad told me about it. It went into the bush, climbed down through it and popped out onto the driveway. It then flew off, without a meal.

At the beginning of March me, my dad and my Granddad went to Colwick Park to try and see the Smew that was reported to be there but we did not see it and that's not the first time we have missed a Smew, when it was reported at Holme Pierrepont we went and it wasn't there then it was reported at Colwick Park we went to see it and guess what is wasn't there. I hope to have better look next time when I am looking for Smew. The reason my grandad went with us was because he as sort of the reason I got into bird watching because he is a bird watcher as well. One of the best birds we saw, and my highlight of the trip, was a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

We had a couple of trips to Attenborough during the month. Some of the highlights were male and female Red-crested Pochard, our first Sand Martins of the year, our largest ever flock of Ruddy Duck (15!) and a couple of Shelduck. On the first trip we also saw a duck that we thought was a Garganey but weren't entirely sure. Even when checking bird guides and photos we still weren't sure, oh well! On the second trip to Attenborough we took my dad's camera and I tried a bit of bird photography. A couple of the photos appear in the newsletter.

I also had my first trip to Clumber Park. We didn't see any new birds but still had a good time and had great views of some nice birds. One of the first things we saw was a Nuthatch, we watched it for a while and then it joined another Nuthatch and passed what looked food to it. I think it must have been a pair and this perhaps is part of the courtship. Whilst walking around the Chapel area we had really good close ups of lots of Chaffinches. Also we saw lots of Song Thrushes, on one grassy area we counted five, the most I've ever seen together.

After Clumber we went to the Welbeck Raptor watch point. This was our first trip here, but it won't be our last. Although we only saw one raptor, a Kestrel, we were amazed at the close up views of the different tits and finches that were feeding on the nuts and seed that people had put out on the fence. We even had a visit from a Great Spotted Woodpecker, this was our closest view of this species we've ever had. Next time I'll take the camera, and birdseed, with me! That's it for this month, see you next time!.

Jake Hill

Read Jake's Norfolk outing report.

Last updated: Saturday April 26th 2008

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