Walk to Deep Hayes Country Park.

This morning this Ash tree growing along the disused railway line had attracted a number of birds: Wren, Dunnock, Chaffinch adult and three, possibly female/juvenile, Greenfinches,a male Bullfinch, Blue Tit and Goldfinches. Some may have been feeding on the Ash seeds while others were finding invertebrates.

Ducks on Park Pool, Deep Hayes Country Park today. Three pairs Goosander, c20 Mallard (ducks and drakes), c2 male Teal, female Tufted Duck, Grey Heron.

Also around were Jays, 3+ Nuthatches, 5 Tree Creepers, a Buzzard plus more passerines.

Fungi at DHCP today.
 

A black bracket fungus on a dead stump of (probably) Elderberry.

Probably Yellow Brain Tremella mesenterica growing on dead branch of oak tree. 

Birds seen at Rudyard Lake during November and December 2013.

Here is a list of birds seen during three visits to spot winter birds at Rudyard Lake. The numbers are an indication of how many were present during each visit. Some species, such as Snipe and Willow Tit were only see on one occasion out of three visits.

Black-headed Gull	300+ birds in flocks	Lapwing	c140
Blackbirds	c6 birds	Lesser Black-backed Gull	c20
Blue Tit	c10	Long-Tailed Tit	c16
Brambling	flocks of 20+ birds amongst Beech trees	Magpie	3
Bullfinch	2 pairs	Mallard	c70 birds (ducks and drakes)
Buzzard	1	Mandarin Duck	pair
Canada Geese	flock of about 60 birds	Mute Swan	3 juvenile birds
Carrion Crow	c12	Nuthatch	c8 birds
Chaffinch	c7 birds	Pheasant	1
Coal Tit	c8 birds	Pied Wagtail	1
Cormorant	c6 birds	Redwing	c5 with Fieldfares
Dunnock	1	Robin	c6 birds
Fieldfare	small flock with Redwings	Rook	c10
Goldeneye	1 solitary drake	Siskin	3
Goldfinch	flock of c 20	Snipe	2
Goosander	3+ pairs	Starling	flock of c 30
Great Crested Grebe	c6 birds	Teal	c20 (ducks and drakes)
Great Spotted Woodpecker	1	Tree Creeper	2
Great Tit	c20	Wigeon	c10 (ducks and drakes)
Grey Heron	2	Willow or Marsh Tits	c3
Grey Wagtail	1	Woodpigeon	in trees and flocks flying over
House Sparrow	c8 birds	Wren	3
Jackdaw	c14	TOTAL	46 Species
Jay	c4	Grey Squirrel	3

The north end of Rudyard Lake.

Winter Starlings

This year winter flocks of Starlings seem to be larger than in recent previous years. The flocks  I am seeing this year around Endon appear to contain at least four times more Starlings than last year. On 6th December John Higgins, who lives in Oakamoor, phoned me to tell me that at about 8am that morning a huge flock of Starlings that “turned the sky almost black for five minutes” had passed overhead and travelled on towards Threapwood. I wonder if the huge flock John saw was a combination of all the Starlings from the Staffordshire Moorlands area and had they just left their overnight roost (in just getting light at that time of the morning at this time of year)? I haven't seen a murmuration here in Endon.

Over the past few days I have noticed that the Starlings, along with Black-headed Gulls and corvids, seem to favour feeding in fields that have either been recently cultivated (and perhaps sown with winter wheat) or contain livestock. The photo below, taken during today's misty morning, just about shows a large flock of Starlings taking off from a sheep field between Endon and Longsdon. I presume that these fields supply more food than permanent pastures that are without grazing animals at the moment. Perhaps the presence of animal dung or soil turned up by scuffing of hooves provides a source of invertebrates on which the birds can feed?

Corvids harrass a Buzzard at Endon Riding School.

The fields that belong to Endon Riding School often attract a number of bird species. I suspect that insect larvae in the horse manure and the poaching by horses hooves provide feeding opportunities for hungry birds. Today, as I walked past the riding school I heard a commotion amongst the local corvid population. As I looked over towards the noisy crowing I could see a number of Carrion Crows swooping down into the fields and more gathered in tree tops. These were joined by a Magpie or two, plus Jackdaws and Rooks. I also heard Blackbirds and a Grey Squirrel joining in, though in the latter case this may just be coincidental. Meanwhile flocks of Black-Headed Gulls and Starlings feeding in the fields, but these flocks were also pretty active flying up from time to time as if to join in the action. I watched for a while, hoping to see what had caused the fuss. I expected it was a cat or bird of prey. It turned out to be a Buzzard, which I expect, also wanted to feed in those fields. I don't know how long the Buzzard was grounded, but I watched for about 15 minutes before moving on. There were at least 60 Carrion Crows plus 10s of Jackdaws and Rooks. So I expect every time it attempted to fly, the other birds deterred it. In my experience, it is the crows that cause most bother to Buzzards. Carrion Crows seem to be the only ones that have the capacity to match a Buzzard's flight.

I took this photo after the Buzzard had gone. By then the birds seemed to be gathering pieces of bread from the field. Perhaps someone had put some in the for the horses. What ever it was had attracted the gulls and corvids again, several were flying away with large chunks of food in their bills.

BH Gulls and corvids in Endon Riding School fields.