Rain, wind and Kingfishers at Winnall Moors

Today’s activity was put on hold due to the strong wind and heavy rain. The recent cold weather has had a negative effect on our kingfisher nest box. A large part of the root plate has collapsed over the weekend, probably due to the soil freezing and expanding, then as it defrosts shrinking, causing it to destabilise and fall into the river. Fortunately it isn’t a section right next to the nest entrance although the larger the root plate is the more attractive it will be to the kingfishers.

Despite the weather there was some good news today. As I arrived at Winnall this morning I spotted a Kingfisher dart past me along one of the channels that run through and around the reserve. It then dashed over some scrub, I knew that on the other side of this barrier was another water channel, the one on which our kingfisher nest has been built. Very quietly walked to a position where I could look down this channel towards the Kingfisher nest. There, through binoculars, I could just make a male kingfisher perched on a twig over the river less than 5 yards from our artificial nest. I watched him being buffeted by the wind for perhaps ten minutes hoping I might see him inspect the tunnel entrance. Unfortunately he never did fly into the tunnel, instead he dove for a fish, then flew at high speed back up the river past me. Judging by the way he flew I don’t think he succeeded in catching a fish.

This sighting is very encouraging even though the kingfisher didn’t directly check out our nest or catch a fish. In what way was this encouraging I here you ask? Well the kingfisher sat undisturbed for nearly 10 minutes within sight of the artificial nest which, will hopefully convince him that this is a suitable location to raise a brood. Secondly, kingfishers have excellent eyesight and I believe he would have almost certainly seen the entrance hole to the tunnel and nest whilst he was perched so close to it. Lets hope that he successfully pairs up with a female during February and leads her to the nest sight.

How did I know it was a male kingfisher? Female kingfishers have a red lower mandible which is quite easy to spot through binoculars, if the kingfisher sits still long enough for you to get a good look at it!

You may remember from last week that I mentioned I had recorded a domestic cat on the CCTV set up here. We have also recorded a wood mouse and not surprisingly on numerous occasions rats! Below are the links to the footage:

And below is otter footage from the last week:

Due to the bad weather I showed the volunteers the most recent footage of otters and other wildlife recorded at Winnall Moors which I will post shortly. In the meantime here are some stills from the video footage:

 

 

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Winter Wonderland

Thanks to the cold weather over the weekend Winnall Moors was blanketed in a covering of snow. The snow doesn’t just make for a beautiful scene, it can also tell you a great deal about what wildlife you have in your area and what its been up to.

Below are several animal prints that tell us about some of the animals to be found at Winnall Moors.

Left hind print of an otter

Roe deer hoof prints

Domestic cat print

I’ve recorded a cat on the camera system on the reserve so its not very surprising to find domestic cat prints, especially with residential housing a matter of metres away.

What happened here?

The above picture shows possible coot prints, a probable rat print and blood stained snow. We’ll never know what happened here, but blood was certainly spilled.

Today’s task was to put up some additional screening in an effort to reduce disturbance to the kingfishers along the river and hopefully encourage them to use the nest we’ve built for them. As the screening is going in along the edge of the garden, rather than in the woods as before, a more formal but no less sustainable screen was chosen, this time made of reeds, which is in keeping with the reeds found on the nature reserve.  As spring arrives and the plants begin to grow up around the screen a good visual barrier will form and hopefully the kingfishers will nest.

The first screen goes in

Time will tell if our efforts are successful.

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Installing a Kingfisher Nestbox

Firstly, to finish off last weeks blog here’s a picture of a volunteer putting out the bird cake once it had cooled the following day.

So far we’ve seen mostly robins, blackbirds and wood pigeons feeding on the table.

If you remember back to my post on the 26th November the volunteers built a wattle screen to reduce disturbance to a kingfisher nesting site in an over turned tree root. However, due to the heavy rain throughout December a large section of soil fell from the root plate reducing the depth of soil into which the kingfishers could nest. After taking a closer look at the root it was possible to see where the kingfishers had attempted to dig tunnels into the remaining soil. Unfortunately both tunnels ended after only 6 inches, prevented from digging further by lumps of chalk blocking the way.

Two attempted nest tunnels made by a pair of kingfishers.

Due to the shortage of nest sites in the area we decided to install a kingfisher nest box made from a light-weight breathable concrete. The first step in installing the nest box was deciding where the entrance hole should go on the river side of the root. We found a spot approximately a foot from where the kingfishers had previously attempted to dig. Next up we drove a metal spike through to the landward side of the root plate to ensure no large roots or stones would block our tunnelling. Using the end of the metal spike as a guide, we started tunnelling from the landward side using a fence post auger, a very large hand drill for boring through soil. We dug until we were about 10 cm from the front face of the root to conceal the concrete tube and allow for any further soil crumbling from the roots.

Volunteers take a breather after installing the nest tunnel.

With the tunnel in place the next step was to extend the back of the root plate so it could support the nest chamber. To do this old fence posts were driven in that we could screw recycled pallet wood to forming a box that we could fill with soil.

Putting in old fence posts to support the timber crib that will hold the soil in place.

Once the wooden box was filled with soil to the height of the tunnel we put in the nest chamber.

Nest chamber installed.

The next step was to continue filling around the nest with soil and line the edges of the chamber with clay to provide a more naturalistic shape. Soil was also placed in the chamber and tunnel to allow the kingfishers to shape it to their needs.

Nest chamber lined with clay.

The finished nest chamber area.

Once the chamber was covered with soil and plants it was time to finish the entrance to the nest.

To stop the chicks from being predated the area around the nest hole was cleared of roots or lumps of soil that rodents, such as rats, or even mink could use to climb into the nest. From the otter camera which is located near by I know rats live in the area although mink have been controlled successfully in the area before it is possible that they could return to the site even if they don’t stay due to the presence of otters. As a final touch the entrance hole was lined with clay to make it narrower and fill in any gaps caused by the tunnelling.

Lining the entrance hole with clay.

 

The finished nest hole

Within the next month kingfishers will be pairing up and looking for nest sites with the female potentially laying her first brood in April, lets hope that they deem our efforts worthy and decide to lay their eggs and raise a family in the des res we have made for them.

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Making food for the bird table

This week the volunteers and I made cake for the birds in the garden at Trinity. The garden attracts a wide range of species including garden favourites such as robins, blackbirds, blue and great tits, long tailed tits, chaffinches, wrens and goldcrests. It also has a few species you wouldn’t expect to find in most gardens such as moorhens and kingfishers.

We decided to make food for birds that are most likely to visit the bird table and made a cake that is high in energy to help them through the winter months, though it is important to feed birds throughout the year. The cake is made from flour, dripping fat, porridge oats, sultanas, ground peanuts and sugar. When finished the cake looked and smelled good enough to eat however, the fat and sugar content wouldn’t do a human much good! Birds on the other hand need lots of fat as they use the energy to keep them warm particularly during cold nights. Blue tits have been found to loose up to 5% of their body weight during winter nights burning fat reserves to keep warm. That is the equivalent of a man weighing 12 stone loosing over 8 pounds in a single night!  In winter birds spend nearly all their time foraging for food so every little bit we can do to help to get them through is beneficial. 

Volunteers mixing flower and fat

The recipe required ground peanuts so we blended them to crush them up.

The finished cake

Once you start feeding birds it is important to feed them regularly and to a routine if you can. Monitor how much food they are taking and adjust how much you put out, if you put too much food on the table it can go off potentially harming the birds and an excess of food may attract animals we don’t want in the garden such as rats.

Before Xmas you may have seen a photo of a robin looking very fat and round in the papers, it must have been a slow news day as this little fellow drew a great deal of media attention. The reason the robin looks so fat is because it has plumped up its feathers to trap warm air close to its body acting as insulation like a sleeping bag and keeping it warm. Many birds plump up their feathers to keep warm during the winter and some species grow extra downy feathers during the autumn moult to help keep them warm over the winter season. 

Also over the festive period our remote cameras at Winnall Moors recorded more otter activity. To see the footage follow the links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3x_6EQ-mAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGoYQBRhTmg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFVCKS0Oiqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQn6Y4CNaI4

 

The otter can be seen shaking off water, marking its territory and investigating and knocking over the camera! Otters area very intelligent and inquisitive animals which explains why it was so interested in checking out the camera.

 

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