Stags Lodge & Quarry - 4th April 2010

A late walk up to Stags Lodge this morning, well you can excuse me I had to watch the Burnley vs City match on the repeat of match of the day before heading anywhere. 3 Chiffchaffs still calling, 2 from around the bridge over the river and the other near the pond. Plenty of Great ad Blue Tits calling, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Mistle Thrush, Chaffinch, Jackdaw, Robin, Coot and Mallard. Heading back home I passed under the A6 underpass that leads next to the river and to what I call Church Walk Woods when I heard what at first I thought was a quite vocal Robin but upon searching through the undergrowth I found a male Blackcap. I went back tonight with the camera but no sign of it, I saw several in the area last year so fingers crossed I’ll see it again in the next few weeks.
The quarry was fairly busy this afternoon, with Chris, Robin and Neil (good to have met up with you at last) watching over the female Peregrine. Thoughts were expressed over the dead Raven and Chris who visits the quarry regularly had similar concerns to myself as he hadn’t seen the Raven for over a week. There are suggestions that the bird may have been shot or poisoned but as the small island where it is quickly decaying is out of reach I guess we’ll never know. We did see 2 Raven before I left but they didn’t come into the quarry so my thoughts are they are not the same pair. With the female Peregrine being present on the cliff face throughout my visit we decided to view the area from the top of the quarry so making the logging of the water fowl difficult. A Little Grebe did swim out to the middle and Mallard and a Coot were also noted. Coal, Blue and Great Tit as well as the usual Jackdaw, Woodpigeon and several calling Chiffchaff were logged around the scrub and overhead. A Buzzard flew around the quarry being mobbed by Jackdaw, the unusual marking of a white rump was noted as it dropped low to the ground trying to escape. Bill arrived late on and soon after the male Peregrine.

ABOVE RAVEN BELOW PEREGRINE COURTESEY OF BILL GREGORY