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Caught up with both broods this week and pleased to say both are doing well see photos. The larger brood is down to 16 but I caught 1 lone chick on its own calling for its parent a good 2km away downstream so as of this morning we still have 24 young goosanders. A male G/S/Woodpecker was feeding 2 newly fledged young in the car park feeding station at back of Cromwell House,also on the river 3 juv Grey Wagtails and 4 juv Pied Wagtails and photo of newly fledged Reed Warbler and Female Mandarin.
As a matter of interest I cover 4km of river and the same of canal and apart from C/Goose goslings and Mallard there are no Moorhen or Coot chicks to be found on 8km of waterway.
The Reedbed Lagoon holds 3 Little Grebe,2moorhen and 3 Coot chicks an apalling yield for this amount of open water any thoughts. No young on the fishing Lake or the Ski Lake.
As a matter of interest I cover 4km of river and the same of canal and apart from C/Goose goslings and Mallard there are no Moorhen or Coot chicks to be found on 8km of waterway.
The Reedbed Lagoon holds 3 Little Grebe,2moorhen and 3 Coot chicks an apalling yield for this amount of open water any thoughts. No young on the fishing Lake or the Ski Lake.
17 comments:
I'd guess at Mink being the problem down there Mike. thirty years ago we had Moorhen on virtually every stretch of open water & mill pond in Calderdale. A pair have bred successfully at Ringstone this time & had 4 chicks at the last count. Calderdale MBC used to be good at supplying traps for us on the Ryburn.
Are you sure thats a Whitethroat and not a Reed Warbler.
Its a Reed Warbler.
Thanks Nick for pos ID and there were another 3 in the reeds.
I also see mink on most days on my walk in the area and on fri one had a duckling.
Great to know the goosander are still there
Good to have proof of breeding for this species.
I believe Paul Talbot used to trap and destroy Mink down there, perhaps that need starting again
I am 100% in favour of destruction of this animal
Yet another introduced (by accident or design) species wreaking havoc with native species. We have trouble with these things in the upper Calder valley as well.
Nice photos Mike.
There are still adult Moorhens kicking about on the Canal and River system. Between Bradley Hall and Anchor Pit, at Anchor Pit Weir, at the weir near Bradley HF, by the weir near Avocet on the river, on the canal at Cromwell Bottom and by the weir upstream from Cromwell Bottom, by the Barge and Barrel and on the lagoon/reed-bed. I must admit, I haven't seen any with young so far this year. Boat traffic on the canal may (?) reduce their breeding success on the canal, and fluctuation in water level on the river, may have a baring. Mink are a problem and the Angling Association bailiffs allegedly put traps down for them. I have seen less Coot around than Moorhen, mainly on ponds but occasionally on the canal. One built a nest on Brookfoot Pool but I don't know what the outcome of this was.
I've seen Mink on Ryburn Reservoir and around Brookfoot Bridge area of the river.
Yep, Mink are aliens that should not be here, but there may also be other climatic or biotic factors at play here, such as a change in Pike numbers that we may not be aware of.
I don't know what the Ski Lake has been like in the past for producing young Coot and Moorhens, but the washes produced by skiing activities are more than capable of swamping any bank-side nests.
The reed-bed lagoon, and High Royd ETW seem to be the most favourable looking locations for these two species. We could do with more shallow pools with emergent bankside vegetation,
Thanks all for comments a good debate, the only other Coot nests were on the fishing lake and both were predated.Police were attending men and dogs on the council tip this morning at 0915to the rear of Cromwell House.
I think the duck is a Wood Duck not a Mandarin, if you blow the picture up you can see the bird has a dark nail to the end of the bill not a white one. Also the white around the eye would also point to a Wood Duck. Any body else got any thoughts ?
Nick, this duck appears to have a pale nail on a dark tip like a Mandarin. The broad spectacles do indicate Wood Duck however. The spotting on the flanks look more like Mandarin, but the angle of the bird in the photo makes this difficult to judge. Also difficult to see is the amount of white around the bill base. This bird has no "crest", therefore suggesting a juvenile rather than a female. If it wasn't for the thick-rimmed specs and time of year, juvenile Mandarin would be my choice. All the female wood duck photos and illustrations I have seen appear to have grey bills and a lot of contrast between the dark head colour and the white eye and bill-base pattern. There appears to be more orange in the bill in this specimen. c.f. juv Mandarin in BWP
Mike, where was the duck photo taken? Did you take any others that might shed more light on the id of this duck. The jury is still out on this, with eclipse male Mandarin, (note the two vertical lines between flank and breast,)and Mandarin x Wood Duck hybrid being thrown into the debating pot.
Photo was taken on the weir to the rear of Cromwell House and it flew upstream towards Elland. I will post more shots on a new blog.
Mink seen loping along the concrete banks of the Calder in Todmorden this weekend.
No Mallard chicks except for one very young brood seen once a few weeks ago, where past years have normally been quite successful.
At least Grey Wagtails still present.
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