Little Egret at Stanley Pool today.

Not very good photos, but there was a Little Egret feeding on the muddy shore of the small pool at the N. end of Stanley Pool this afternoon. This is the second sighting - a couple of years ago one was spotted seen in the stream that passes through the fields owned by Endon Riding School. Info. on Little Egret's incresing British polulation here on the BTO's Bird Trends website http://blx1.bto.org/birdtrends/species.jsp?year=2014&s=liteg

Great Tit mimicry of other bird species.

For several years, or perhaps most of my life, I've been trying to improve my knowledge of different bird's song and calls. Probably I learned Starlings and House Sparrows when I was a kid, as they were pretty much the most common of the birds that came to feed on kitchen scraps my mum put out for the birds (most people couldn't afford specially formulated bird food in those days!). At about the same time my copy of The Observer's Book of Birds told me that the Yellowhammer song says "a little bit of bread and no cheeeese" and, although we didn't get Yellowhammers in our garden, later on I did get a chance to hear that song on Barlaston Downs (a place I visited fairly frequently during my childhood and teenage years). I also remember from those days watching and listening to Skylarks displaying in the sky above the rough grassland on the upper end of Meir Aerodrome (near where I lived at the time). And I think I learned Robin's songs and calls as an adult as I was gardening. A more recent acquisition to my repertoire of call and song ID is the Chaffinch which I particularly recall learning as one year a male was often heard singing in a tree outside one of the numerous houses I have lived in. I was able clearly see that bird as it sang so I could relate that sound to that species, and I've remembered it ever since as the "chip-chip-cheereeo" bird because I've read somewhere it's song described like that! But in the last ten years or so I have made a determined effort to learn more bird calls and song. Now I am very familiar with many more species, particularly garden and woodland species, and less familiar with quite a few more.

A few years ago while out rehearsing my ability to remember bird calls and song I noticed a Wren and Great Tit within a few meters of each other in some lowish scrub along the disused railway line. Both birds were interacting with each other, as at times the Great Tit was perched above the Wren fidgeting and posturing on the branch and its actions appeared to be aimed at the Wren below. At the same time the tit was making the cross sounding rattle-type call which is made by Wrens (it sounds like a warning call - maybe to warn off a rival but I don't know if that is its function). I was fairly convinced that the Great Tit was mimicking the Wren call. Since then I have taken time to listen out for other examples of Great Tit mimicry - and I think I have heard it on several occasions. For example, when listening to a flock of mixed Blue and Great Tits I find it difficult to separate the calls of each species as to me it sounds as if the Great Tits are copying the Blue Tits.

This afternoon I got another opportunity to spend an extended period listening to Great Tits. There was about four of them initially alongside a couple of Blue Tits in Hawthorn trees near Stoke on Trent Boat Club. In the ten minutes or so that I watched and listened to these birds I heard sounds similar to Blackbirds, Blue Tits, Magpie and perhaps more. Judging by the width of the black band down the front of their breasts they were all males practicing this behaviour.

Wondering if I am correct in my interpretation of what I have been observing when I got home I looked in the classic British Tits by Christopher Perrins  (pub. by Collins in 1979) to see if there were any references to Great Tits mimicking other birds. However I can't find any. So, I resorted to the internet where the habit is mentioned on a couple of websites plus a scientific publication from which this is an extract.......Rather than attracting conspecific females, mimicry may be used to repel heterospecific competitors. For example, when great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (P. caeruleus) compete for food and nesting sites during the breeding season, great tits mimic blue tit song. As matching another individual's song is often used to signal aggression between conspecifics in many songbirds, it seems possible that the mimicking great tits are attempting to intimidate blue tits. Song sparrows, Melospiza melodia, may do something similar: their mimicry of white-crowned sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, territorial song induces aggression in white-crowned sparrows although it is not clear to what effect. From http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221001451X

So it seems that I am correct in my assumptions.

Great Tit Parus major male by Sławek Staszczuk This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

A frosty walk along the disused railway to Deep Hayes Country Park including list of birds seen in the park.

About ten Snipe feeding in wet grassland near Hazlehurst Junction 13/12/2014.

Close up of Snipe through fence along disused railway 13/12/2014.

Five Bullfinches feeding on Silver Birch seeds.

Close-up of two of the Bullfinches.  

A view of frozen flooded fields towards Dunwood from the disused railway line.

Another view towards Dunwood. 

Yet another view towards Dunwood.

View of deep Hayes Country Park from hillside on east side of park. 

Another view across the park from the east.

The middle pool with Goosanders swimming across. 

List of birds and mammals seen in the quarry and pools area of Deep Hayes Country Park. 

Deep Hayes Country Park	13/12/2014 and 16/12/2014	Notes
Mallard	About 40	16 on middle pool 20 on bottom pool
Tufted Duck	About 5	males and females
Mandarin Duck	2 pairs
Tufted Duck	About 5	males and females
Goosander	About 7	males and females
Coot	7
Moorhen	About 6
Little Grebe	1
possible Water Rail		skulking near reedmace bed
Kingfisher	1	briefly perched in tree by little pool by bird hide
Buzzard	1	flying over
Pheasant	1
Goldcrest	1
Dunnock	1
Chaffinch	3	from bird hide
Wren	13 plus3	heard
Blackbird	21 plus
Coal Tit	3 plus	from bird hide
Long -Tailed Tit	About 8	from bird hide first day and in tree tops second day
Blue Tit	22 plus
Great Tit	6 plus
Willow Tit (possible)	1	feeding in front of bird hide
Marsh Tit	1
Robin	5 plus
Nuthatch	5 plus
Woodpigeon	4
Great Spotted Woodpecker	1
Jackdaw	About 18
Jay	1
Carrion Crow	2
Fieldfare	3
At least 30 bird species.
Grey Squirrels	4	feeding in front of bird hide plus more in woodland
Red Fox		attempted to catch bird feeding in front of bird hide first day and another (perhaps same one ) seen second day

Jackdaw roost - Baddeley Green

Here are photos of the Jackdaw roost in Baddeley Green (near Heakley Hall Farm). The roost has been gathering there for the last three winters at least - and probably for many years before that. It difficult to count, but there seems to be between 200 and 400 birds. The Jackdaws are joined by Carrion Crows and Woodpigeons, though not in such large numbers. At dusk the Jackdaws arrive in various sized groups, sometimes temporarily settling in trees away from the main roost before they swirl up again, calling as the fly, then eventually joining the final roosting site. The sound of so many birds calling as they form the roost is wonderful!

Jackdaw roost at about 16:45 on 10/12/2014.

Interesting wave pattern in clouds over Endon this morning.

After a frosty start a view from Edge Lane Brown Edge towards the east this morning at about 10:15. 

Two Robins share my garden - but not the feeders perhaps!

I see these two Robins (well I assume they are the same two every time I see them) quite a lot at the moment. Their territory boundaries seem to cross my back garden which also contains three bird feeders. The bird in the foreground is the one that wins the argument. He or she (again, presumably the same one every time) sees off the other one which sometimes gets to sneak in and have a feed alongside the other, while it isn't looking! In winter both male and female Robins hold a territory. Both sexes also sing a winter song at this time of year. Once the days start to lengthen, after about 21st December, the males will start to sing their breeding territory song.