June 30th - there is an established heronry on the main island where Grey Herons and Cormorants have been breeding for years. Several times over the past few years, a Little Egret or two have visited the heronry during the Spring and there were hopes that they might breed. However, this year up to 6 birds were present in early May and I was pleased to see a sitting bird hidden away in the canopy on May 10th - this nest became almost impossible to see later on as the foliage covered it over. About a week later, a second nest and sitting bird was found at a slightly more visible location. At least 2 small juveniles were seen at the second nest site on June 16th, which meant that the first nest probably had larger juveniles in it, though I could not see this nest. During this time, up to 2 adult birds, presumably the males, were fishing around the lake on most days, though sometimes the male guarded the nest whilst the female went off to feed. Kevin H saw juveniles in both nests on the 21st and by the 25th, juveniles from the first nest were large enough to be walking around the tree canopy and are now very visible. Judging by their size and the amount of wing flapping going on, I expect the maiden flights to be any day. This is only the 3rd confirmed nest site in the county and will hopefully be the start of a regular colony.
A record of the 3 large juveniles from the first nest seen this morning:
Also present this morning was a
3rd or 4th summer Yellow-legged Gull - it looked pretty much adult, but had remnants of black feathering in the primary coverts and tertials and the primary mirrors were small. The legs were certainly a lot more yellow than last week's adult. This is the third YL Gull of the season, as a typically grotty 1st summer was also present for a couple of days last week.
An Oystercatcher, male Pochard and a couple of Teal were the other birds of note.
No comments:
Post a Comment