A late afternoon visit to Deeping Lakes produced a number of waders on the East Pit including Bar-tailed Godwit, Little-ringed Plover and Common Sandpiper - 2 of each. The water level has dropped further and it is looking very suitable for waders at the moment. At the other end of the site, I saw a Little Owl for the first time in many weeks.
Lots of drgonflies about today with considerable numbers of Orthetrum cancellatum (Black-tailed Skimmer) around all the water bodies. I saw several pairs mating in flight over the East Pit. Also, large numbers of Coenagrion puella ( (Azure Damselfly) everywhere, both over the water surfaces and perching on the vegeration. An adult Lesser Black-backed Gull on one of the islands on the East Pit appeared to be catching and eating damselflies.
A longish cycle ride (35km) today, partly along Morton’s Leam, a medieval irrigation channel east of Peterborough centre.
Three cranes near Bassenhally were the highlight. These birds can be difficult to see at this time of year with the tall vegetation but these were in the open. On a warm June early afternoon, the Nene washes can seem a bit quiet. The best tactic I find, is just to wait until a passing marsh harrier triggers a mobbing flight. Suddenly the washes fill with previously invisible lapwing, redshank and snipe.
I planned to do a quick cycling trip to Tanholt Pit today, but ended watching a plover for ages trying to confirm its identity. I hadn’t got my scope with me.
There’s an increasing amount of mud being exposed on the northern pit, and it does provide a small feeding area for passage waders. So far in spring this year, I have seen black tailed godwit, little ringed plover, common sandpiper, lapwing and oystercatcher here. Not bad for a little known inland site. Autumn passage might be quite good here if the water level drops further.
As I arrived, there were two plovers together with a smart dunlin. One of the plovers flew off - no wing bar - little ringed plover. The other stayed put. It was larger than the dunlin and had orangey legs, and no sign of a lemon eye ring. The bill was orange with a black tip.
I waited for ages for it to preen or fly to show a wing bar. Eventually it had a stretch and showed a wing bar. First ringed plover for me on this site since 2013, and only my 6th record here. (38 site records for Little ringed plover).
The delays meant I got soaked by a heavy shower going home.
Cuckoos, Cettis and red kites were other highlights
A pair of Garganey were reported on the East Pit at Deeping Lakes yesterday, so I went along this morning to see if they were still there. I only saw one bird, the male, which was very visible in the corner of the pit nearest the road.
A remarkable number of Mute Swans are on The Lake at the moment including a few family parties with young cygnets. There has been a huge hatch of Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) and they were everywhere in the vegetation. I also saw a female Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) and one bigger dragonfly I didn't get a good look at.
A visit to the RSPB reserve at Frampton Marsh was my first since before lockdown began in March. I normally try to get there at least once a month. As expected, the visitor centre (including the toilets) and the hides were closed. The other change since I was last there is that the anti-predator fence around the main scraped is now completed and operating. This means that you go through a gate in the fence on the way round the North Scrape from the Reedbed Hide towards the East Hide and then you go back out of it at the base of the steps up the sea wall. Signs on these gates say that they are open from 9:30 to 16:00 and are otherwise kept locked. I had a chat to the warden before I left and he said that this was to ensure that they were not left open at night - which would of course, totally defeat their purpose!
The breeding season is in full swing and there were young birds everywhere. Avocet chicks were especially noticeable. In small groups all around the pools and not obviously associated with an adult in most cases. Young geese, ducks, Coot, Black-headed Gulls and Lapwing were also much in evidence. Whilst many Black-headed Gulls have chicks, I didn't see any tern chicks, although many were sitting on nests.
The highlights were Little-ringed Plover, my fist of the year, a Spoonbill, a Greenshank and a couple of Curlew Sandpiper - not something I would have expected in late May.
The winter stuff has not completely departed: there were about 15 Brent Geese on the main scrapes, 4 Barnacle Geese on the wet grassland and a pair of Wigeon on the North Scrape. Presumably the Brents are either too young to breed or too old and sick to migrate.
This was a hot and sunny Sunday morning with enough of a breeze to keep it pleasant and by the time I left at about 12:30 it was busy! Both car p[parks were full and there were family parties everywhere.
Several Quail were found calling from fields of beans along Renew's Drove, about a mile north of Crowland a couple of days ago. Both my co-author Dave and myself went out there last night (Wednesday, 27th May) about 7pm to listen. It was a pleasant evening at the end of a rather warm day, but a bit breezy and we found several other birders strung out along about a kilometre of road when we got there. We did hear a single Quail which was calling rather sporadically from the western end of the middle of the three fields of beans, but it was very occasional bursts of two or three calls. This is a very open area of high intensity cultivation, so it was interesting that there were a number of "good" birds about including several Corn Buntings singing, Yellow Wagtails flitting about (my first of the year!), a fairly distant Cuckoo and, as we were leaving, a distant Barn Owl hunting. The ditch edges and one rather low and sparse Hawthorn hedge along the roadside also supported Reed Bunting, Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler. This clip includes some Quail calls and Corn Bunting song:
The best place to see Long-eared Owl locally is undoubtedly the winter roost at Deeping Lakes Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust reserve. Typically around 1-3 birds roost in thick scrub covering the islands immediately in front of the main hide on The Lake. However, they are not easy to spot: their plumage provides excellent camouflage and they usually choose a perch deep in the vegetation. It is often hard to be sure that what you are looking at is (part of) a bird rather than a bundle of dead leaves and it is easy to fool yourself after a long period of hopeful staring through a 'scope! So persistence and patience are needed. This rather nice video clip was taken by Ian Gordon on 2 March 2020 (phone on his 'scope) of a bird that was more out in the open than usual!
I checked my records on BirdTrack and, over the last four winters (October through to February) I visited the reserve 38 times and saw Long-eared Owl on 10 of those visits. So my hit rate was around one visit in four. The winter of 2015/16 was particularly good whilst 2019/20 was about average with 3 sightings from 11 visits.
There are lots of theories about when they are most likely to be seen. One theory suggests that a north wind is good because the birds will tend to seek a sheltered roost - which will then be on the south side of the islands and more likely to be visible from the hide. Another theory is that they show better if the sun comes out just after rain when they move into the sunshine to dry off (although I have never seen one of these roosting birds move beyond rotating its neck or fluffing up its feathers!).
There are more Long-eared Owls about locally in the winter as birds from further north move into our area, but this is never-the-less a local breeding species. It is on the Cambridgeshire Bird Club's list of scarce breeding birds about which we should not publicise locations for actual or suspected breeding, so I am not going to mention localities.
I find it the most difficult of the owls to locate. Little Owls often sit near their nest sites during the day and can be fairly easy to see. Barn Owls are also active around dawn and dusk near breeding sites and may be out well before dusk when they have chicks to feed. Tawny Owls make there presence very obvious with the loud hoots of the male and "ke-wick" calls of the female. In contrast, Long-eared Owls are very nocturnal in their activities and their calls are rather quiet and inconspicuous. Here is a recording of what I believe to be female contact calls. Made on 7th May, it is a rather repetitive, soft bleating call which, on this occasion, went on for at least 8 minutes, hardly missing a beat:
They are most readily located when they have young. Like a lot of young birds, they make a fairly noisy, repetitive and persistent begging call - which sounds like a badly oiled metal gate (the "squeaky gate" call). This can go on and on for ages! Again, the original recording was over 5 minutes long with scarcely a pause:
This recording was made on 23rd May last year, so this the time to be listening out for them!
STOP PRESS:
Here are a couple more recordings of juveniles calling made at a local site last night (25th May). The first one is of a single bird at close range:
The second one is of at least two juveniles, possibly three:
