Birding Group Visit to Moore Nature Reserve : 25th April 2017

On the 25th April we had intended to go to Etherow but David decided that we should not go there, in part because rain (had we had any ?) had washed away some of the path up the hill to the top of the site. Instead we changed our schedule to Moore Nature Reserve.

We started off going up the hill to the hide overlooking the main pool. From here we could hear Reed Warblers calling and we also got a single Reed Bunting. On the water were the usual limited number of species of duck  but there were also a few Swallows and a greater number of Sand MArtins to add interest. In the gorse bushes and other shrubs around the raptor point we heard a lot of bird song and saw a few Willow Warblers (“year tick”) and Chiffchaffs and a female Blackcap. In the woods Nuthatch and Treecreeper (“year tick”) were added as well as a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers. There were lots of Wrens, Robins and Blackbirds everywhere and generally it was a very pleasant morning and an indication that Spring is about to start for real.

A conversation with some people, including a volunteer warden informed us that there had apparently been a lot of vandalism on the site recently and that the Phoenix Hide had been completely destroyed and it is going to need professional workers not volunteers to rebuild it from scratch !

When we asked about the Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers we were told by the warden that they had been scared off by photographers getting too close to them and disturbing them. Typical.

Another big differerence is on the birch pool where the island in front of the end of the pool has almost completely disappeared. The closing over of the most recent dump had apparently meant that there is more water run-off now and this is entering the birch pool making the water level really high and also the gulls have all deserted the pool – we saw a single Black-headed Gull there ! A big change.

Bird Sightings : Moore Nature Reserve