Friday 29 April 2011

Herons at WCP.



Our annual visit to the heronry at WCP resulted in 2 young herons being rung. There seem to be fewer nests than in past years and they are less concentrated. Some nests are also too high for us to reach. While at Watermead we saw 5 Swifts and heard Garden and Grasshopper warblers. Thanks again to Dale for his time and effort in helping us reach the islands.

We recently checked 2 Barn and 3 Tawny Owl boxes at Charnwood lodge. Unfortunately we did not find any owls. However, in one Tawny box we found a recently dead female Mandarin. It seemed to have a broken neck but no other obvious damage. I can only presume that perhaps a Tawny owl landed in the box unaware of the occupant and in its shock killed the duck. A pity for this Mandarin , but at least some evidence that owl boxes are potential nest sites for a range of species.

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