Lake View bird report for May 2010

I'd just moved one of the bird boxes onto a tree in the open visible from the kitchen window. On the 1st, we had a pair of Redstarts investigating the box, but they didn't stay; they have nested a few years ago in our garage but not this year. We were pleased when a pair of Spotted flycatchers found the box later in the month and seem to be setting up camp there. Again, we've had them before in a different location under the spruce trees.

Caz' ear is definitely getting 'in' as she identified a Garden warbler here, a first for us. She also spotted a Goldcrest family with newly fledged young out and about at the end of the month. Nice to see after the cold winter.

We don't seem to have had Kestrels nesting at the nearby barn this year which is a shame. We had one Tawny Owl roosting in our spruces until the middle of the month, and one sighting at the end.

We had a trip to Dodd Wood to see the Ospreys for the first time. The eggs hadn't hatched but we caught a brief changeover at the nest. We also saw a cuckoo for the first time as we peered down from the top of the Dodd. A nice pair of Jays around. I wore shorts and had to pick off 4 ticks in the next day or two.

I managed a brief walk on the Pennine Way near Alston with Freegle Ed on his way to John O'Groats. There were nice views of Lapwings, probably a Common sandpiper, and nice river-side plants.

The Tawny Owl pellet analysis for April 2010 showed Brown rat appearing in the species list, amongst 31 prey items in 19 pellets. The list in order is: Field vole, Bank vole, Wood mouse, Brown rat, Common shrew, Large bird and Amphibian.

The linked table below shows the maximum count of each bird species seen primarily in our back garden near Bampton Cumbria in NY51 VC69 (and in our surrounding 1km square) in the period from November 2007 until May 2010, with a total count of 48 species.

Full Lake View Monthly Max Bird Count Seen table

Species	May-10
Blackbird	2
Blue tit	2
Brambling
Bullfinch
Buzzard	1
Carrion crow	1
Chaffinch	3
Coal tit	2
Collared dove
Curlew
Dunnock	2
Fieldfare
Garden Warbler	1
Goldcrest	6
Goldfinch	5
Great spotted woodpecker	2
Great tit	2
Greenfinch	2
Grey heron
Jackdaw	4
Jay
Kestrel
Lapwing
Linnet	2
Long-tailed tit
Magpie	2
Mistle thrush	1
Nuthatch
Pheasant	9
Pied wagtail
Redstart	2
Redwing
Reed bunting
Robin	1
Siskin	2
Skylark
Song thrush	1
Sparrowhawk
Spotted flycatcher	2
Starling
Stock dove	4
Swallow	6
Swift
Tawny owl	1
Willow warbler	1
Woodpigeon	1
Wren	1
Yellowhammer
Total: 48	29

Moths in trap 21 May 2010

Here's the list of moths etc in our 80W MV Skinner trap on overnight last night. Any suggestions for the photos below very welcome. Thanks to Liz at CumbriaMoths for some identifications.
* means first sighting here.

Cockchafer x 3
Peppered x 1
Scalloped hazel x 3
Water carpet x 8
Hebrew character x 13
Common carpet x 2
Garden carpet x 1
Flame carpet x 2
Lunar thorn x 1
* Scorched wing (m) x 1
Brimstone x 2
* Knot grass x 4
Brown silver-line x 1
White ermine x 1
Coronet x 3
* Least black arches x 2
Flame shoulder x 1
* Pale-shouldered brocade x 4
* May highflyer x 1
* Brindled pug x 1
* Foxglove pug x 1
* Dwarf pug x 3
Common Quaker x 1: slightly aberrant with the oval and kidney marks slightly joined
* Agonopterix arenella x 1: slightly faded, overwintered
??possibly some clouded drabs
?Striped twin-spot carpet

Least black arches

Pale-shouldered brocade

Knot grass

Brown silver-line

Common carpet

White ermine

Flame carpet

Scorched wing

Pale-shouldered brocade

Knot grass

Coronet

Scalloped hazel

Lunar thorn

May highflyer

1: Brindled pug

Foxglove pug

3: Dwarf pug

4: Dwarf pug

5: Dwarf pug

Common Quaker

Agonopterix arenella

Scorched wing

Lake View bird report for April 2010

We had been hoping that the Tawny Owl pair would settle down in my new nest box. However this doesn't seem to have happened. Both were roosting in our spruce trees until 9th April 2010; since then we have only seen one owl. Does this mean that the female is elsewhere? It has been suggested that the owls may not be breeding because they'd have a harsh winter with little food available while snow was covering the ground from December through to March.

Caz has been collecting Tawny Owl pellets from under our spruces since January and sending them off each month for analysis by the Mammal Society. During March 2010, these were the results:

Species	Number of prey items
Field vole	24
Bank vole	16
Wood mouse	2
Common shrew	8
Pygmy shrew	2
Water shrew	2
very large bird	1
amphibian species	2
Total:	57
No of pellets:	33

Pygmy shrew and Water shrew have appeared in the list for the first time. There are no water courses very close to us; the owls must have been ranging wider (down to the River Lowther?). Bird prey items are divided into 5 categories; a 'very large bird' might be a pheasant.

The linked table below shows the maximum count of each bird species seen primarily in our back garden near Bampton Cumbria in NY51 VC69 (and in our surrounding 1km square) in the period from November 2007 until April 2010, with a total count of 47 species.

Full Lake View Monthly Max Bird Count Seen table

Species	Apr-10
Blackbird	2
Blue tit	2
Brambling
Bullfinch
Buzzard
Carrion crow	1
Chaffinch	5
Coal tit	1
Collared dove
Curlew
Dunnock	2
Fieldfare	15
Goldcrest	2
Goldfinch	4
Great spotted woodpecker	2
Great tit	1
Greenfinch	4
Grey heron
Jackdaw	6
Jay
Kestrel	1
Lapwing	1
Linnet	1
Long-tailed tit
Magpie
Mistle thrush	1
Nuthatch
Pheasant	1
Pied wagtail
Redstart
Redwing
Reed bunting
Robin	1
Siskin
Skylark
Song thrush	1
Sparrowhawk	1
Spotted flycatcher
Starling	2
Stock dove	2
Swallow	5
Swift
Tawny owl	2
Willow warbler	1
Woodpigeon	1
Wren	1
Yellowhammer
Total: 47	26