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Heron watch 15^th April 2012 – Dick Beeden

Although in the morning there had been some bright sunshine, by lunchtime it was mainly cloudy with a cold northerly wind. Unsurprisingly there were few people or birds about. As last year the grey herons had decided to nest out of sight of the causeway although there are still plenty of herons nesting around the lake with a couple flying past just a few yards away. But with few people, no nests or chicks to show them and the cold wind Christine and I did not stay more than an hour or so. Rather a shame as it also meant that we did not recruit any new members. Might need a rethink of how we hold this event next year.

The small birds, tits, chaffinches chiffchaff and dunnock, kept us entertained as they flitted in and out of the trees and bushes to either side of us. A blackcap (probably) sang strongly for a short while. A pair of common terns attempted to retake the tern raft from some black headed gulls but failed. There were quite a few ducks out on the lake as well as Canada Geese and a mute swan or two. We saw both kestrel and, more unusually, a buzzard, the latter high up and more over the canal and Stockers Farm than the lake. The house martins and swallows are also back hawking over the water so there were some interesting things to see despite the cold.

Wildfowl walk 12^th February 2012 – Dick Beeden

What a contrast to the walk in January! The lake was frozen solid. It was cold, but reasonably bright. And just four of us made the trip as against thirty odd in January. The effect on the birds was marked. There was a distinct shortage of wildfowl because there was no or virtually no open water. On the other hand there were more species of the other birds to see. I am grateful to Peter Jenkins for his assistance again and Christine Crowther for keeping the list.

So what did we see? On the lake, not a lot. The dabbling ducks were represented by a few mallard and unusually for Stockers a pair of teal in the carr woodland near the scrape hide. There were a few tufted ducks and on this outing the only sawbills (ducks with teeth) seen were a pair of goosander flying over. The lake, or more accurately its surroundings and the river produced a little grebe, a few coot and moorhens, mute swans and Canada geese. The gull family had three representatives; the ubiquitous black headed gulls (with very variable amounts of black as their full breeding plumage develops), common and lesser black backed gull mainly standing out on the ice. There were a few herons flying about and in the trees along with some cormorants and lapwings.

So much for the lake what about in the trees? Rather more than might be expected. A large flock of siskin were flitting about the alders on the causeway where we met and made for easy viewing along with greenfinch, goldfinch and reed bunting. There were several great, coal, long tailed and blue tits, wrens, chaffinches, robins, blackbird, songthrush, starlings and dunnock and a nuthatch, again in the wet carr. House sparrow was spotted by Stockers House. Fieldfare and redwing were spotted at various places round the lake. Greater spotted woodpecker was heard but not seen. The crow family was represented by carrion crows, magpies and jays. Plenty of wood pigeons and a couple of ring necked parakeet put in a noisy appearance. And last but not least a red kite quartering the fields on the other side of the canal.

All in all not a bad morning given how quiet it was ornithological with a tally of 39 species.

Wildfowl walk 15^th January 2012 – Dick Beeden

Glorious weather, bright sunshine almost no wind, cold but not bitter. There was some ice on the lake but plenty of open water. The weather had been mild up until a couple of days before so wildfowl were in short supply and probably some of the more northerly species had not migrated this far south. None the less we had a good walk and saw a pretty good range of birds. At least 30 people met us on the causeway so it was a pretty big group, some of whom saw the stoat (or was it a weasel) scurry through the undergrowth in front of the seat while we sorted ourselves out for the walk. My thanks to the several people who helped with the spotting and identifications and to Christine for keeping the tally; some 45 species in all.

Wildfowl numbers were a bit thin although most species one might expect to see at this time of year were present. There were good numbers of Tufted Duck and Coot. There were respectable numbers of Pochard and Shoveler (many displaying). There were small numbers of Mallard mainly on the canal and river, male and female Goldeneye dotted around the lake, Moorhens (on the Ark Royal raft and along the canal), Great Crested Grebe and Wigeon. Oddly no Gadwall although they were reported on Inns lake. The sawbills (they look like large ducks but have teeth and eat fish) were represented this year by a couple of splendid male goosanders though they were tucked up under the bank of one of the islands and not that easy to see. Regrettably no Smew although there were reports of a female being seen on the lake. We also saw Egyptian and Canada Geese with Greylag reported by some in the party.

There were large numbers of Black Headed Gulls (though none had yet got its black head) plus a few Common, Lesser Black-backed and at least one Greater Black-backed Gull. There were plenty of Cormorant mainly standing out enjoying the sun and fair numbers of Grey Herons with some sitting on their nests. We added a couple of Mute Swan on the river and, early on, near Shoveler hide, a Kingfisher was seen by some of the party. The Scrape hide turned up a Water Rail but unfortunately it dissolved into the reeds by the time the majority of the party got there. There were several sightings of Lapwings. No Reed Bunting though.

The woodland birds were a bit sparse too. However there was a pretty wide variety. We saw Dunnock and Treecreeper near to Tern hide, Great, Blue and Long tailed tits all around the lake, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Blackbird, Song Thrush (singing loudly near the iron bridge), Redwing, and a few Fieldfare, Robin, Wren, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Carrion Crow, Jay and Magpie. We managed a few Siskins but no sizable flock this year. Both Greater Spotted and Green Woodpecker were heard and the Ring-necked Parakeets put in a brief appearance.

A pretty good morning.

HMWT Bat Walk 2nd September 2011 - Jennifer Gilbert

Following our bat survey workshop at Denham Country Park on the 2nd September, we embarked on another bat walk of Stocker's Lake to give our volunteer bat surveyors the chance to hone their bat detecting skills. This is the first of several training workshops being run as part of Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust (HMWT)’s' 'Connecting People with the Colne Volley' project. We aim to encourage more people to become volunteer surveyors in the Colne Volley and play their part in caring for this fantastic landscape. FoSL members were informed about this event and a few come along.

We really couldn't have asked for a better night. Starting along the canal side of the lake we stood watching and listening to at least five Soprano Pipistrelles putting on quite a show! These were the most numerous bats of the night, but we were also lucky enough to hear the familiar chip-chop echolocation call of the Noctule bat. More frequently however, we heard them making what we believe to be a social call. Moving round to the riverside of the lake we then came across a couple of Daubenton's bats hunting for insects over the lake.

All in all, a great evening for bats! However, stealing the show was a fantastic, never to be forgotten, encounter with a badger. Reaching the metal bridge near Uxbridge Road a young badger come running over the bridge only to get spooked by a strange group of people in his way! After much confusion (on both parts!) he ran back to where he had come from - hopefully to finish his nightly foraging after we departed.

Butterfly & Dragonfly Walk 21^st August 2011 – Wendy Wilson

A dozen of us assembled in the rain on the causeway on Sunday 21st August, to go in search of butterflies and dragonflies. Not a promising start - insects don't like to fly in the rain. However it brightened up as we set off and, though we didn't see much sun on our walk, it remained warm and dry. The first Lepidoptera to be seen were moths, two of which we identified as common carpet and silver Y. Then the butterflies started to appear starting with a meadow brown and some small whites. On the thistles in the field by the river we saw small tortoiseshell, red admiral and comma, all of which were lovely brightly coloured fresh specimens. Later we saw several gatekeepers, green-veined whites speckled woods and a holly blue. ln all there were nine butterfly species.

Dragonflies and damselflies were harder to identify as they zoomed around at high speed and rarely settled. Definitely identified were several common blue damselflies (including a mating pair) and two black-tailed damselflies. A female common darter rested on top of a nettle by the river and a brown hawker made several posses in front of us when we had a lunch-stop by the weir. We saw many other hawkers patrolling their territories at great speed along the river and canal. They were probably migrant and southern hawkers, which are both common here in August, but they never obliged by sitting still. We all had a good time and at least we had a lot to see. Of course the sun came out after we had all gone home.

At the end we talked about the timing of our walk. The general opinion was that we should start earlier, say at 10.30am, and finish at 12.30pm so that people could go home for lunch. (Noted: editor)

Warbler walk 10^th May 2011 – Dick Breeden

Half a dozen people gathered on the Causeway for a walk round the lake at half past eight. The weather was somewhat overcast and cool to begin with but brightened and warmed up as the morning went on. The trees this year were well in leaf if not quite full out which obscured our views a bit. Maybe we should do it a week earlier next year. And so our tally of little brown jobs was somewhat slow to mount. Quite a lot heard, not so many seen. We managed reed warbler on the causeway and reed bunting on the stretch approaching Stocker's House. Maybe the next was a garden warbler as we made our way along the canal side path but the identification was not certain. No blackcap although blackbird and wrens, robins and chaffinches were plentiful. A few song thrushes were calling too and a number of the party saw treecreeper by tern hide. We heard and some saw chiffchaff but no whitethroat or lesser whitethroat joined the chorus. We did not get confirmed sightings of sedge warbler until we reached the reed bed on the river side.

The terns were much in evidence as were the Canada geese plus goslings and a coot with chick was nesting on the river. There were a few greylag geese too. We had views of a greater spotted woodpecker and the ring-necked parakeets were among the most common sight. Just one kestrel above the causeway represented the raptors. The herons were busy but there were few cormorants this year. The male mallards were particularly colourful in the bright sunshine with their heads and neck shining emerald green. There were a few pochards among the rather more plentiful tufted ducks, coots and moorhens. Otherwise great and blue tits flitted about. The swallows were much in evidence over Stocker's House and Lock with some more over the lake. Only one house martin identified but several swifts high up. Including the other common species like swan, woodpigeon, collared dove, crow, magpie and so on we spotted about 30 species altogether. All in all a pretty good morning.

Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust Bat Walk 20^th April 2011

Robert Hopkins, H&MWT Reserves Officer

It was an absolutely perfect evening mild and still with amazing thick clouds of insects forming in the tops of some of the taller trees. We were delighted to have a group of 27 adults and children attending. After a short introduction into bat ecology and why Stocker's is a good place for bats we started a leisurely circuit of the lake. As dusk started our first distant sounds of bat activity were heard on the bat detectors that had been distributed amongst the group. The bat detectors were 'tuned into' the echo location frequencies of different bat species 45KHz for Common Pipistrelle, 55KHz for the 'Soprano' Pipistrelle and 25Khz for the Noctule. Soon we were hearing plenty of both species of Pipistrelle and near Ihe boardwalk a Noctule was clearly heard with its distinctive 'chip chop' sound.

Viewing the River Colne from the metal bridge near the Uxbridge Road entrance, with torches using filtered red light, we watched a number of Daubentons bats skimming the water eating the emerging insects.

Returning to our start point at 10.15pm we were delighted to have heard and seen so much bat activity, and a good time was had by all. Special thanks to Jane Archer, a FoSL member who is doing her bat training and who helped tremendously with the walk.