December 2013

I didn’t expect to repeat last month’s report with sighting on the way home, but again, starting where I left off – when I left the meeting last month, we saw a rabbit in Poughill - And when we did the point transect at Maer Lake, we saw two more.

A dead badger near Cleave recently was being cleared up by a Magpie

 

Main sighting  of the month was the female Goosander on the Canal and at the Weir.  We saw it fly 

Female Goosander - The Weir Bude

in near Peter Truscott bridge and walked after it.  However, we stopped a 100 metres south to count Canada Geese and Lapwing when an excited woman asked if we were interested in birds as she had just seen a Goosander.  She just wanted to tell someone.  Another woman and dog passed us and put the bird up so we did not get a close look then.  However, it had flown only as far as the lake at The Weir where we were able to have many views of it.

Another good sighting was of  two male Bullfinches together in my garden and lots of Buzzards sitting on posts around about.  I don’t know if it is time of year or because there is less vegetation about that we are able to see so much

Male Bullfinches - Morwenstow

At Maer Lake there was a huge flock of about 400 Golden Plover and a good sized flock of Curlew seen both here and on the Canal.

At the recent Marsh transect we saw 30 species of birds, this is a similar number to last December (34) but there were 5 species we had not seen in that area before – Curlew, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit, Stonechat and Wigeon.  We now have a list of 52 species seen on the marshes and additional 5 seen on Maer Lake and one on the Whalesborough circuit – totalling 58 species of birds

Just today Emma Buck reports seeing the Goosander, a Pintail near Peter Truscott Bridge and a female Redstart on the streets behind the Carriers Inn in Bude.

Nothing seen of invertebrates although locally people have been surprised to see a Peacock Butterfly in December.  Look out for spawn though there is often early spawn in Cornwall.

 

As usual, Red Campion are to be seen, they are usually seen every month of the year. 

Yarrow was the only plant we have seen in bloom when we did the Canal Transect last week.

I was going to report that I had not seen an early Primrose yet, but yesterday, on Sunday I saw two in Morwenstow Churchyard and today a wild strawberry in flower and Three-cornered Leek at Woodford.

 

[transcript of a report given to Cornwall Wildlife Trust Tamar Group on 16 December 2013]