River Stort 2005 (1 Viewer)

[markpie]

Hi,
Re-making my thread for my patch in 2005. Sorry if you have read this intro on my other thread, just skip down.

My patch is the River Stort; the navigation conveniently starts in my hometown, Bishop's Stortford, and runs down 13 miles to around Hoddesdon, where it joins the River Lee (near Rye Meads). It's cool when I walk the whole of it, then round Rye Meads.

Resident species, and that I hardly ever fail to see, are kingfishers (can get close views), grey wagtails, green and great spotted woodpeckers, kestrels, grey herons, cormorants, and a lot of finches and tits. Winter brings water rails, snipe, fieldfare, redwings, and summer brings common terns, spotted flycatchers, and many warblers (sedge warblers, reed warblers, whitethroats, chiffchaffs and blackcaps). Other nice sightings include: quail, scaup, willow tit, brambling, nightingale.
Click on the attachment for my total species list.

Mammals include foxes, weasels, rabbits, grey squirrels, deer, shrews, mice and voles. I have sighted (and nearly trod on) a slow worm, and many fish are present. I'm looking into bugs, but obviously I have to wait til summer.

I'll stop this now before it gets even longer, and I'll post my 2005 outings soon.

Mark.

 

[James Blake]

I'll post my 2005 outings soon. Mark.

Yes, please do!

 

[markpie]

I'll try to post once a month, maybe more if I have really good outings.

9/1/05. First patch outing of the year. Nice walk, got 28 species:

Water rail, 1
Kingfisher, 1 male
Goldfinch, 23
Greenfinch, 18
Bullfinch, 4
Wren
Robin
Blue tit, 33
Great tit, 28
Long tailed tit, 26
Moorhen, 26
Mallard, 21
Magpie, 19
Jackdaw, 230+
Jay, 1
Carrion crow, 8
Woodpigeon, 260+
Green woodpecker, 2
Great spotted woodpecker, 2
Blackbird, 21
Fieldfare, 86
Pheasant, 2
Grey wagtail, 1
Little grebe, 6
Mute swan, 4
Feral pigeon, 8
Black headed gull, 13
Goldcrest, 2

23/1/05: Brought a few more birds as well as the ones on the 9th. 36 species, patch year birds were:
Kestrel, 1 male
Meadow pipit, 1 (patch lifer)
Cormorant, 2
Reed bunting, 8
Song thrush, 1
Grey heron, 1
Dunnock, 2
Chaffinch, 3

I also got Lesser black backed gull, a patch lifer, on the 28th.

That's it for January. I'll post for February at the end of the month.

Mark

 

[pduxon]

Is it me Mark or are there more Kestrels about here lately? Other than the Rye Meads birds I hadn't seen many about. But this year I've seen them over the Forest.

 

[Nutcracker]

Nice list there Mark!

Plenty of Kestrels about up here too - they seemed to have a very good breeding season last year.

 

[markpie]

Yes, Kestrels do seem to be increasing. I had 3 yesterday, between Harlow and Bishop's Stortford. And I'm glad to hear that it's not just around here, Nutcracker. By the way, Pete, I got the waxwings at Church Langley yesterday too, I got 13 out of the 28 but I managed to get extremely close which was great. Now I just wish that they move up a bit to the river so I can count them as a patch lifer.

Mark

 

[birdman]

Water Rail and Quail, cracking birds for you patch list, m-c... keep posting :t:

 

[pduxon]

By the way, Pete, I got the waxwings at Church Langley yesterday too, I got 13 out of the 28 but I managed to get extremely close which was great. Now I just wish that they move up a bit to the river so I can count them as a patch lifer.

Mark

Hi Mark,

I saw them Sunday morning when I went for a paper but they had moved by the afternoon. Pleased they had only moved trees!! They've been at one of the two Tesco's at least 2 years running.

 

[markpie]

I've decided to post as many of my outings as possible, because if I limit it to the best eachmonth, I'll only have 12 posts on sightings. I've also scrapped posting at the end of each month; I'll post after each outing (unless I have reports which aren't good at all).

16/2/05

After going to Harlow for waxwings, I walked back along the river. Usual favourites were seen, plus lots of common finches etc. A total of 34 species:

Green woodpecker, 2
Great spotted woodpecker, 1
Kestrel, 3 (2 males and one female)
Grey heron, 1
Cormorant, 4
Jay, 1
Magpie, 45
Carrion crow, 13
Jackdaw, 250+
Fieldfare, 91
Blackbird, 16
Song thrush, 2
Robin, 9
Dunnock, 2
Wren, 8
Blackcap, 1
Great tit, 17
Blue tit, 23
Long tailed tit, 21
Bullfinch, 5
Chaffinch, 12
Greenfinch, 18
Reed bunting, 1
Kingfisher, 2
House sparrow, 7
Starling, 16
Mallard, 23
Moorhen, 25
Woodpigeon, 60
Feral pigeon, 10
Collared dove, 2
Mute swan, 6
Pheasant, 2
Black headed gull, 12

Also some deer were seen, although I had brief glimpses (probably fallow, as that is the only type I have seen on my patch).

Mark

 

[shaunchandler]

Hey Mark, nice list!

I wish I was back home on the Stort!
Thanks for posting your 'outings' I will look forward to seeing future lists.

Good Birding!
Shaun

 

[markpie]

River Stort, 5/3/05

First March outing. Went from Southmill Lock, Bishop's Stortford, to Sawbridgeworth Marsh and back. A gorgeous day to be out on, and I managed to see 31 birds:

Snipe, 4, patch year tick
Water rail, 2, one giving the best views ever, out in the open.
Kingfisher, 1 male
Kestrel, 3, 2 males and a female. One of the males was being mobbed by...
Woodpigeon, loads but 50 were mobbing the kestrel.
Great spotted woodpecker, 1 seen and another heard.
Little grebe, 10
Grey heron, 1
Cormorant, 2
Mute swan, 1
Blue tit, 23
Great tit, 20
Long tailed tit
Goldfinch, 10
Chaffinch, 2
Wren, 17
Moorhen, 9
Coot, 2
Mallard, 18
Collared dove
Jackdaw, 140
Carrion crow, 4
Jay, 1
Magpie, 10
Rook, 1
Blackbird, 24
Song thrush, 1
Robin, 8
Pheasant, 1 female
Black headed gull, 12
Common gull, 1

Mark

 

[pduxon]

nice numbers of Little Grebe Mark. How far is that? yeah I should know!!

 

[markpie]

Lol. They're on the stretch of water just before Spellbrook lock, most of them between that and the little bridge but a couple before it.

 

[markpie]

River Stort 20/3/05

Hi all,

A patch visit today proved worthwhile. Went from Twyford lock (B/S) to Latton lock (Harlow). I managed to get 36 species, which ain't too bad at all:

Grey partridge, 2, patch lifer! That brings the total up to 68.
Chiffchaff, 1, year tick.
Pheasant
Coot
Moorhen
Mallard
Tufted duck
Canada goose
Mute swan
Black headed gull
Lesser black backed gull, 5
Woodpigeon
Feral pigeon
Collared dove
Kestrel, 4, 3 males 1 female.
Kingfisher, 1
Great spotted woodpecker, 1 seen and several more heard.
Green woodpecker, 2
Carrion crow
Magpie
Jackdaw
Blue tit
Great tit
Long tailed tit
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Bullfinch
Wren
Robin
Dunnock
Blackbird
Song thrush
Cormorant
Grey heron
Starling
Meadow pipit, 5

Wish I could have carried on as I seemed to be doing rather well, but I had to go :C !!!

Cheers, Mark

 

[markpie]

River Stort, 31/3/05

An alright patch visit for the last day of the month. I was after two things today, one being any early summer migrants and the other being dusk birds.

Today I went from lock no.1 to Sawbridgeworth Marsh and back again. A darting blue figure appeared straight away, a Kingfisher. A second one was seen further up the river. The Chiffchaffs are well and truly back, with 9 individuals heard (4 seen), and more are probably going to join them.

However, the Little grebes have well and truly gone, with no sign of them today or on my last visit. I'm glad I managed to catch them in their wonderful summer plumage before they departed. The winter thrushes have obviously gone, so now I'm waiting for the summer arrivals.

A nice sight was a couple of Mallard chicks, my first of the year on my patch-awww! Also, there are two Feral pigeon nests under a railway bridge; I can see them very clearly and would be great to check up on now and then. My dusk watch however didn't prove very successful, with the only thing of note being 7 Snipe heading over to Sawbridgeworth Marsh. No owls or the supposed Woodcock showed, but it was worth a try, right?

By the end, I managed to get 33 species:

Water rail, 1
Kingfisher, 2
Snipe, 7
Kestrel, 2
Great spotted woodpecker
Green woodpecker
Coot
Moorhen
Mallard
Blackbird
Song thrush
Blue tit
Long tailed tit
Great tit
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Robin
Wren
Grey wagtail, 2
Feral pigeon
Woodpigeon
Collared dove
Starling
Pheasant
Jay
Carrion crow
Magpie
Jackdaw
Cormorant, 4
Grey heron
Chiffchaff, 9
Mute swan
Black headed gull

Next month should be more interesting with the migrants.

Mark

 

[devilbirder]

I am so jealous, my local patch is rubbish, never get anything on it.It is just commonland though, I have had Ring-necked parakeets, a merlin and a kestrel and two of those are pretty pethetic but it is always nice to see even the common ones if it is a good veiw which most of the time it isn't!Got within 5 feet of the merlin which was amazing.
So far i think my patch list for all the time that i have birded on it is:

Woodpigeon
Black-headed gull
Song thrush
Jay
Merlin
Ring-necked parakeet
Kestrel
Blue tit
Redwing
Heard:Great spotted woodpecker,Pheasant and Jackdaw

Total of 12! 3 heard and 9 seen, you get 33 in a day! This is over 3 years!

 

[markpie]

That's alright, as long as you like going there. I'm just a bit more fortunate to have this habitat. Some people I know have much better patches than me, like estauries and stuff. And well done on the close view of a Merlin.

 

[markpie]

River Stort, 9/04/05

My first full patch walk of the year. Got to the river at 6:30 am. Was hoping for more summer migrants.

The dawn chorus was contributed to by Song thrushes, Robins, Chiffchaffs and other common ones. The only extra migrant I got was a summer Blackcap.

I got 2 patch lifers (common birds though |:$| ). They were Pied wagtail and Skylark, bringing my list up to 70.

Total species count 44:

Great crested grebe
Cormorant
Grey heron
Mute swan
Canada goose
Mallard
Tufted duck
Coot
Moorhen
Water rail
Black headed gull
Lesser black backed gull
Woodpigeon
Feral pigeon
Collared dove
Green woodpecker
Great spotted woodpecker
Carrion crow
Jackdaw
Rook
Magpie
Jay
Blackbird
Song thrush
Robin
Dunnock
Wren
Kingfisher
Skylark
Grey wagtail
Pied wagtail
Pheasant
Starling
House sparrow
Chiffchaff
Blackcap
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Blue tit
Great tit
Long tailed tit
Kestrel
Reed bunting

Cheers, Mark

 

[markpie]

8/5/05

First visit in ages. Many summer migrants have arrived during my absence, so it was a pleasure to see them. The first new arrivals that I saw were a group of Whitethroats, accompanied by Swallows darting behind them. Later on, I saw a mixture of Swallows, House Martins and Swifts skimming the insect-filled air. Then came Sedge and Reed Warblers, making themselves known by their usual racket. The last migrants I saw were 2 Common Terns, with beautiful gleaming white wings from the sunlight. A Cuckoo was heard, but was too distant. Nothing much else was interesting, although lots of species were present. Total count 43:

Cormorant
Grey Heron
Mute Swan
Canada Goose
Mallard
Moorhen
Kestrel
Pheasant
Black Headed Gull
Common Tern
Woodpigeon
Feral Pigeon
Collared Dove
Carrion Crow
Rook
Jackdaw
Magpie
Jay
Blackbird
Song thrush
Robin
Dunnock
Wren
House Martin
Swallow
Swift
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Long Tailed Tit
Grey Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Starling
Sedge Warbler
Reed Warbler
Whitethroat
Chiffchaff
Reed Bunting
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker

Cheers, Mark

 

[markpie]

26/05/05

An afternoon walk on the river. The sun was shining and was very warm. Many birds were about, such as warblers, Common Terns, and a Cuckoo. I managed to track it down by its calling. It was conveniently on the top of a tree, though it was distant so it wasn't a great sight. However, this was a patch lifer so I was still happy with it. Also a pair of swans had 6 small fluffy cygnets which was nice to see. Not much else was of note.

List (33) :

Cuckoo
Cormorant
Mallard
Moorhen
Woodpigeon
Feral Pigeon
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Green Woodpecker
Blackbird
Song Thrush
Dunnock
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Chiffchaff
Sedge Warbler
Reed Warbler
Whitethroat
Common Tern
Reed Bunting
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Chaffinch
Bullfinch
Carrion Crow
Rook
Jackdaw
Magpie
Jay
Grey Wagtail
Swallow
Swift
House Martin
Pheasant

Mark