Archives: July 2006
Mon Jul 31, 2006
Not sure whats happened...
I am not sure what has happened to the 3 teenagers and 2 babies that went over the weir. Yesterday morning I saw them with either mum/dad but in the afternoon they were nowhere to be seen. This morning I didnt see them again and then I saw 3 teenagers *above* the weir so at least 2 of them have made it back. I wasnt worried about the teenagers as they can now look after themselves if needed but what has happened to the 2 babies ??? Did the RSPCA come ???? did the teenagers get back themselves ???? where are the 2 babies ????
Sorry no picture today Colin ?
Terry
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Sun Jul 30, 2006
I called the RSPCA...
I called the RSPCA last Thursday because 1 of the 'teenager' Moorhens and 2 of the second brood baby Moorhens had gone over the weir at Cogglesford and I was worried that they might get waterlogged by the water coming over the weir and drown. I do not know if the RSPCA came but the potentially 'good' news is that today there were now 3 teenagers and the 2 babies at the bottom of the weir - why is this potentially good news, well because the teenagers were feeding the babies, not only this but mum or dad was also with them for a while feeding all of them. I suspect that mum or dad will go down to help feed them all until they either figure a way of getting back by the land between the Mill and the weir or until they can fly, whatever happens I feel reasonably confident that they can survive.
Another potentially good bit of news concerns the nesting Dabchicks, in the photo below taken today I think I can see a little crack in one of the eggs (enlarged in the corner) so hopefully they may hatch soon, this is very good news if it happens because bl**dy Water Weekend and Raft Races will take place 2 weeks today.
Terry
PS Graham is still trying to work out if we have 3-4-5 dabchicks on the Slea at the moment and will let us know as soon as possible - thanks Graham.
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Wed Jul 26, 2006
Everything looks normal...
Evrything looks normal and I see most of the normal wildlife about so I am hoping the 'report' of the return of the Mink was just a mistake ?
Here is a closeup of a butterfly from my garden today...
Terry
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Mon Jul 24, 2006
Lollycocks Pond
Graham told me a day or so ago that he talked to someone who had noticed that they were quite a few dead fish in the pond and that they would report it to the Environment Agency (EA). Graham and I both thought the problem would be lack of oxygen in this heat. Today apparantly the EA were at Lollycocks pond oxygenating the water - so thumbs up to the EA on this one.
I didnt get any pictures today as I was more interested to try and see if all the usual wildlife was about as we had had a report of a potential Mink. Most of the wildlife is still about but it can be very difficult trying to count all the Moorhen chicks, but every thing seemed ok ??? So without a picture today I will repeat one that gives me a smile whenever I look at it...
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Terry
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Sun Jul 23, 2006
Potentially bad news...
I heard potentionally bad news today, someone who I meet quite often walking the Slea said that he had seen only a few minutes before a black animal similar to an Otter swim across the river, his description seemed more likely to be a Mink, this is the first 'sighting' of this animal so perhaps nothing too much should be read into it, but if the Mink have returned its very bad news. On the plus side when I continued on my walk all the normal wildlife still seemed to be around and they didnt seem to be in a disturbed state which I would have thought they would have been if a Mink had just been there ????
Here is a picture of a baby Moorhen being fed by one of its parents downstream from the Leisure Centre Bridge today...
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Terry
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Sat Jul 22, 2006
Interesting day
I meet Graham walking the Slea today, he thought there may actually be 3 Dabchicks around and not just the 2 that I had mentioned, we then saw the third a little dowstream from the other 2 which proved Graham was right. It would be nice if there were actually 4 making 2 breeding pairs. We also saw most of the baby Moorhens, single little coot and the 5 tufted ducklings.
You may recall that 1 of the 4 'teenager' Moorhens near Cogglesford Mill went over the weir a few days ago, well we also saw all 4 'teenagers' today together so happily he seems to have made his way back, I would presume via the bit of land between the old lock and the Mill, anyway I am really happy that he has been reunited and hope it doesnt happen again :)
Not a good picture but I thought I would show 2 of the first brood of Moorhens near Cogglesford and 2 of the second brood preening themselves together and the 'teenagers' had beeen feeding the little ones again a little earlier...
Terry
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Thu Jul 20, 2006
Now only 5...
Sadly there ae now only 5 Tufted ducklings, originally there were 7, welost 1 early on and we have now lost another over the last couple of days.
I saw 3 of the 4 'teenager' Moorhens near Cogglesford, 1 went over the weir so I have been looking hard to see if it got back at all. I also saw only 2 of the 5 from the second brrod but they still hide in the reeds a lot so I am not sure how many have survived. I also saw 6 or possibly 7 of the 8 Moorhens a little further upstream, there is another Moorhen family a bit further upstream again but I am unsure how many. Then comes the single Moorhen who is getting quite big, another 2 Moorhens have been sighted further upstream and then the 1 (so far) from the Moorhens who nested in the middle of the river. I also saw the baby Coot but he/she is now almost as big as its mum and dad.
Here is a picture of the baby Moorhen half under its mum from the middle of the river nesters :)
Terry
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Tue Jul 18, 2006
I have read about this but never seen it before...
I saw something this morning that I had never seen before, only read about, but 1 of the 'teenager' Moorhens from the first brood was feeding 1 of its siblings from the second brood...
1 of the 'teenager' Moorhens has gone over the weir at Cogglesford, he/she is well able to look after themselves as long as it doesnt keep trying to get back by the weir and get continously drenched with the water coming over the top :)
Terry
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Mon Jul 17, 2006
Sadly there is only 6...
Sadly there was only 6 Tufted Ducklings also today so I have to assume that the other 1 is not around any more :( Instead of going through all the little ones I keep an eye out for I will only mention them individually if anything of note has happened, suffice to say I saw all the usual little ones, however the other day I said I saw 4 Moorhen babies from the second litter of the Moorhens near CogglesfordMill, well today I saw 5 of them, they are so small that if they stay in the reeds it is impossible to see them.
Here is a picture of the single Moorhen baby further upstream from Cogglesford, when they get to this size I normally think that they stand an excellent chance of attaining adulthood...
Terry
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Sun Jul 16, 2006
Good news and bad news...
First the good news, the Moorhens near Cogglesford Mill who have the 4 babies that are now 'teenagers' have had another 4 babies, I know that the 4 new babies are from the same pair as the other 4 as I have seen both mum and dad feed the 'teenagers' and then the new babies.
The bad news is that although this morning there were still 7 Tufted ducklings, this afternoon there were only 6. Tufted ducks and their families normally keep quite near to each other but I suppose there is a chance that the 1 missing is just a little lost and will be reunited soon ? If the missing 1 is just temporarily lost I think it should survive as the ducklings have to feed themselves anyway and the nights are not cold so they dont really need mum to keep them warm. Only time will tell.
I also saw the baby coot and at least 7 (but probably 8) of the baby Moorhens upstream from Cogglesford. The Dabchick is also still happily nesting.
Here is a picture of the new baby Moorhen that was mentioned yesterday...
Those things sticking up are not ears but the babies tiny wings :)
Terry
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Sat Jul 15, 2006
Second post today...
Second post today so this must be important... well you wont remember me mentioning the Moorhens that have nested in the middle of the river before because I havnt mentioned them, this is because I dont like to identify any area where there is a nest. Anyway a pair of Moorhens have been sitting on the nest since the middle of May, everyone (including me) had assumed that the eggs were infertile because of the loooooooooong delay in them hatching, however this afternoon I have seen 1 youngster in the nest under its mum, I only caught a couple of glimpses but there is definately a baby there, in the nest there were at least 3 eggs so hopefully there might be more to come. What I think is the most likely explanation for the long incubation period is that the original eggs were predated and the Moorhens have relaid. It seems to me that it has been a good year on the Slea for Moorhens and Tufted Ducks, hopefully also for Dabchicks in a few weeks time but not so good a year for Ducklings or Coots and I think the Mink earlier in the Spring had a lot to do with that.
I havnt got a photo from the Slea this afternoon, so as not to disapoint Colin :) here is a closeup of a butterfly from my garden yesterday...
Terry
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Wa-Hoooooo
Wa-Hooooo we now have 7 baby Tufted Ducks and mum :) ...
This means that we have had Tufted Ducks breed on this stretch of the Slea for the last 2 years :) They must hide their nest very well as I certainly had no idea that they were about.
I also saw most of the other little ones, I did only see 2 of the Moorhen 'teenagers' near Cogglesford but they are plenty big enough to look after themselves so I am not worried aout the other 2 who I hope to see again soon. I also only saw 6 of the 8 Moorhen babies but there are still very small and dont always come out of the reeds all together, so again I am not worried about the 2 I didnt see for the time being.
Terry
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Fri Jul 14, 2006
...and 3 more...
I saw 3 more baby Moorhens today still in their nest. Not a very good image but 1 of my 'rules' is NEVER to disturb wildlife at the nest, so this was taken from a long way away and through a small gap in the plant cover, the babies can only be a day or 2 old :)
Terry
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Thu Jul 13, 2006
I can't count...
I can't count, today I saw EIGHT baby Moorhens and not just the six I mentioned the other day :) I also saw most of the others that I look for, 3 (out of 4) 'teenager' moorhens, 1 very grown up Coot and the other single Moorhen chick who is getting bigger all the time.
I agree with what Graham was saying the other day in that I do believe the Dabchick is sitting on its nest. The worrying thing about this is that if she has laid eggs or about to, the incubation period will probably be 3-4 weeks brings us right to the BLOODY water weekend when there will be Raft races and canoeists all over the place. So if they are still in the egg there will be a chance that someone's oars will smash them or if the have hatched they might get an oar on the head. It really is time that the people who organise Water weekend realise that the Slea is not wide enough to have raft races and canoeists going up and down while wildlife are nesting and/or there is young about. If the river was wider then this would be possible but please leave the Slea to the wildlife and move water weekend to the middle of January or preferably abandon it all together (at least the raft races and canoeing) - sorry for the rant but I think wildlife have a hard enough time as it is without Water weekend making it worse.
Having calmed down I had better put a picture up for Colin otherwise he might tell me off again :) Here is a picture of the Dabchick on its nest today...
Terry
PS am I evil to hope that the Slea doesnt have enough water in it on Water weekend for the raft races and canoes :0
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Sat Jul 08, 2006
A good day for the Slea...
I think today was a good day for the Slea, to a lot of other places this may seem common place or even boring but for this little stretch of the Slea I think it was a good day. I saw all the usual wildlife, 4 'teenager' Moorhens at Cogglesford, the sole little Coot and the sole baby Moorhen nearer to the Leisure Centre. However upstream from Cogglesford, where I had seen 2 baby moorhens the other day but thought there might be 3 or possible 4, well there are SIX. This means that if they all survive we will have had at least 11 Moorhens reared between Cogglesford Mill and the Hub in 2006, there are also 4 additional baby Moorhens further downstream from Cogglesford.
In addition I also saw 2 Dabchicks (aka Little Grebes) and their behaviour was interesting. Now bear in mind that I know nothing about the breeding behaviour of Dabchicks, but it looked to me as though one of them (presumably a female) was lowering her body in the water as if to encourage the male to mate with her. The male didnt mate but I am hoping that this is a good sign.
The duck that was by the weir wasnt there today so I am hoping that it has seen sence and gone further downstream and will return when it can fly, I have no way of knowing if this is true but it is better thinking this than the alternative.
I will try and post a picture of the 2 dabchicks later ?
LATER:
OK as promised a piccy of the 2 dabchicks today, its not a very good image but I will try again tomorrow...
Terry
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Thu Jul 06, 2006
We now have at least...
We now have at least 7 Baby Moorhens, I think there may actually be 8 or possibly 9 but cant be absolutely sure until I can count them without the possibility of duplicating as they move around in the reeds. There is also an additional 4 Moorhens downstream past Cogglesford Mill. If all these survive it will be a reasonable year for Moorhens on this stretch of the Slea. We only have 1 baby Coot that has survived (there was another earlier in May which didnt survive) so the Coots havnt done very well this year. I think this is because Coots mate/nest earlier than Moorhens which means the Coots were nesting just when we had the Mink around and I feel certain that the Mink decimated the early Coots nest that was down towards Cogglesford.
A smallish duck has gone over the weir at Cogglesford, I have tried to persuade it (with food) without sucess to go further downstream but it keeps by the weir not knowing how to get back up. It is certainly big enough to survive on its own but my worry is that if it keeps getting drenched by the water coming over the weir it will have all the protective oils washed from its feahers and eventually drown, I cant really do any more for it and just hope it sees sense and goes downstream a little until it can fly.
Although this was taken in my garden this morning, we now have some damselflies fliting about especially near the pond in Lollycocks field (they are later this year presumably because of the bad weather in the Spring)...
Terry
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