Towpath & CB 15/3/08

Went out early doors down the towpath and CB this morning, at around 6.15am this morning. I reckon that I can say there for sure there are three Great Spotted Woodpecker territories near where I live as I regularly hear males drumming simultaneously most mornings. One drums in Park wood behind my garden, one drums in the trees between Park rd and the Canal near to Rawson's Pool and one bird is regularly drumming in Strangstry Wood as you walk down the access path on Tag Loop towards the pond. I also had Green Woodpecker this morning on two occasions but I am not sure if this represents one or two birds.

Usual suspects at CB, with Blue, Great, Coal and Long-Tailed Tit spotted. The Robins now seem to have definite territories as well and are well spaced out on the entire route round. Dipper and Kingfisher spotted in the rapids below the weir near North Bank Loop. Making my way back I stopped to check out the Herons nest, one bird sitting on the nest but two further birds were nearby in another tree which hopefully means another pair is attempting to nest.

Birds on the way back up the canal were
Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, various tits, Tree Creeper (pair), Wren, Robin, Dunnock, Wood Pigeons, Male Sparrowhawk, Magpie, Crow and most surprisingly two separate pairs of Mallards perched in trees about 20 feet up on wide branches ! I have never ever seen a Mallard in a tree before and I can only surmise that some ground predator was around and both pairs were calling constantly to each other as they were separated by around 50 feet at least.

I also had two other firsts for the year in my first Queen Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) and a Badger spotted making its way back to an known established sett, not giving location of this for obvious reasons. I only spotted the badger as I was waiting around for the dog to come back from chasing Squirrels up trees. Aged 15 the dog is highly unlikely to get within 20 feet of any self-respecting Squirrel, but it at least gets the pleasure of giving them a fright as it ambles in pursuit :-)) The other noticeable fact about this morning was the sheer noise volume of the "dawn chorus", the birds really are getting into Spring in a big way now, and very pleasant it is too. The two doe Roe deer were feeding out in the open this morning so I had good close views of them through the bins today.

Nice as it is on the towpath and CB (well parts of it anyway), I cannot wait to get to North Wales and see new species on a daily basis. I can see now why you birders spend time in other areas with a larger species variety . Its nice to record your own patch but its also nice to have a bit of variety now and then.