2011 - A summary
Well, nearly at the end of the year and a strange year it's been. Hot in April, cold through June and July, very mild through October and November and only now, in early December is the weather behaving as it should for the time of year.
All this has had an effect on flora and fauna, with plants flowering early, birds nesting early while at the other end of the summer, winter migrants not appearing as soon or in the same numbers as usual. Is this global warming? It makes you wonder what is going to happen next.
This is a good time to begin noting down changes that you are seeing (if you aren't already). Note when plants begin coming through, flowering and seeding. Keep a note of when birds begin nesting, how many broods they raise and when migrants first appear and leave. Note when first insects appear, record butterfly sightings, do a moth trap and note what you attract. All this information is extremely useful to County Recorders as it can be used to help in making planners aware of what is present when they make their decisions so that they don't destroy important wildlife sites because of lack of information.
My own observations seem to suggest that although the severe weather last winter took its toll of a lot of small birds they appear to have recovered remarkably well, the only birds that seem to be slow in their recovery are Heron, Kestrel, Stonechat, Pied Wagtail and Grey Wagtail (if any one knows of any others please let me know). I have seen very few of these species all year, maybe it's just my patch but I do get about a bit and it seems to be a widespread lack of these birds.
The Otter/s on Derwentwater has been showing quite frequently recently and one was reported taking and swimming away with a gull. This must be a very rare event as all the local people I know who are keen on wildlife have never seen or heard of this happening before. A very hungry Otter? Perhaps there is a shortage of decent sized fish in the lake (I must ask a fisherman). A Grey Squirrel has taken up residence on Derwent Island and although I believe they can swim I would have thought that this one will have crossed to the island on the ice when the lake froze last winter.
Winter migrants are making an appearance now and 12 Whooper Swans flew over me this morning, heading for Derwentwater I think, so hopefully we'll be seeing Waxwings again before long.
Some notes of interest
Lot of Jays about, they seem to be everywhere, they must have had a good breeding season.
There were a lot of Redwings and Fieldfares about early in October but numbers seem to have dropped off by December, looking for new food sources elsewhere probably.
I didn't see my first male Goldeneye until 25th Nov at Bassenthwaite Lake, very late this year.
While looking for a Barn Owl that had been seen several times by local dog-walkers, I discovered a Tawny Owl in residence in a large crack in a big Ash tree in Ings Wood. (I still haven't seen the Barn Owl).
Starling numbers around Keswick seem to have dropped to a very low count, I've hardly seen any lately.
While not in our immediate area, the Solway Coast is visited frequently by our members and just recently there have been some superb visiting species to see which included Black Redstart, Sabine's Gull, Bean Geese, Eurasian White-fronted Geese, Great White Egret and Long-tailed Duck with Bittern and Water Rail showing well at Siddick Pond as well.
David Thomason 5th December 2011
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