First visit to Piethorne & first birdwatching outing anywhere since early December.
On Ogden - 27 Goosander (12 males). - 6 Great Crested Grebe. - 10 Cormorants.
In 2007 I regularly chatted with the baliff of the angling club that fishes Ogden Res. Spoke to him this morning and he said that there had been up to 14 Cormorants on Ogden Res. in late Dec '07 and early Jan '08. Anything more than 1 or 2 is highly unusual here! - certainly double-figure counts are a record for the valley. Apparently they have discussed with UU ways of scaring these birds off - certainly not ideal I know - but preferable to them applying for a licence to kill them surely? He told me that apparently there had been up to 30 Cormorants on Hollingworth Lake and thought that those visiting Piethorne were ones displaced from Hollingworth.
Didn't have too much time to locate anything else - although did see 1 Siskin, 1 Kestrel and a large mixed flock of tits.
For those that don't already know - for the last 4 years I have produced an annual report summarising all of the bird records at Piethorne. This is carrying on from Neil Calbrade who started drawing up annual bird reports for Piethorne in the early 1990's. If anyone has any records/sightings for 2007 for inclusion I would be highly delighted to receive them. Many thanks to all those who have already sent me details of any sightings at Piethorne in 2007.
The year end tally for Piethorne for 2007 stood at a total of 106 species recorded. Finally, the "all-time" species total at the end of the year for Piethorne stood at 155 species - almost catching up with Hollingworth Lake and Watergrove! Although still some way to go to catch up with Penningtons 200+!!
