White Wingers Continue

11th March - Only a quick visit this evening to take in some of the gull roost.  I arrived after 5:30pm and left shortly after 6pm and joined four other locals already on site.

It is surprising how distinctive the head of a 2w Iceland Gull is - I noted the domed head, two tone dull pink and black bill and pale iris on this bird sticking out of the gull roost on the back of the spit.  This is probably 200 yards plus away.  It was head on, so none of the body was visible until a sudden movement of the birds revealed it in all its glory.  It then proceeded to walk left and then flushed to the front of the island where it showed well.  This looks to be the same bird that was present last Sunday.  The 2w present last Monday was described as having a dark eye, but the pale iris on this bird is very obvious even at distance, so I assume Monday's bird was a different individual.

Shortly after this, an adult Mediterranean Gull appeared in the water beyond the spit.  Judging by the almost full black hood with some white spotting above the bill, this may well be the same individual that has been noted on several dates recently.  So quite a productive 30 minutes.

First Redshank drops in

9th March - my first Redshank of the year was on the spit this afternoon.  I heard it calling as I arrived when it was walking on the top of the spit with Lapwing.  Later it started feeding around the spit edge.  Otherwise not much change, although I was unable to make the gull roost again.  The pair of Shelduck remained and Reed Buntings are becoming more obvious - 4 birds noted today, with 3 flying over and another male in a reed bed.

First of the year

Birding with a Brolly

7th March - popped down for a quick visit when I thought the rain had passed through - unfortunately it was only a lull!

Still no migrant waders - I would have thought both Redshank and Oystercatcher would have been through by now.  A Little Egret on the base of the spit was only my second this year and Shelduck numbers had once more risen to 3, with a pair plus a further male.  I had to leave before the gull roost had started to build, so that will have to be left to someone else - with 2 Med Gulls, a Glaucous and probably 2 different Iceland Gulls over the last 3 nights, there should be something to see here at the moment!

Of interest, details of the adult Lesser Black-backed Gull with orange darvic KB3T noted on Saturday can be found here.  Interesting to see that it was recorded at this site in 2010 as well.

www.ntgg.org.uk/map/FV83984

A Quiet Morning

6th March - quite cold this morning, but reasonably bright.  None of the hoped for migrants and little of note.

I walked a circuit around the lake.  In a reedbed in the NE corner, my attention was drawn to some noisy movement of the reeds.  A Water Rail was walking around, feeding and paid me little attention.  I tried a record shot and was surprised to get a semi-recognisable image through the mass of stems.

Where?

There!

I also got a year tick with a Little Grebe in the bay next to the workings.  Nothing else was noted in the walk around the northern perimeter until a small digger flushed a Green Sandpiper from the small stream next to the entrance road.  It flew off towards the STW calling as it went.

Gull Bonanza

4th March - a very wet day, raining from morning until late afternoon. Some time after 4pm, the rain eased and I decided to get some air and visit the pit.

On arrival, there were obviously a lot of gulls on site and they were covering much of the spit.  Rubbish at estimating the flock size of these birds, but maybe 6-8,000 birds.  These comprised mainly Common Gulls and Black-headed Gulls, but there were probably 100-200 LWHG present this evening.

The spit turns white

There's an Iceland and Glaucous Gull in this shot!

Having had a quick scan of the gulls and not picked up anything of note, I noted a Dunlin running around on the near side of the spit.  I then started to scan the gulls again and noticed a very white Iceland Gull on the near spit, probably the closest point to me.  I moved to the viewpoint for a record shot and noted a pale eye and dark banded pink bill with a small pale tip - a 2w bird, but with relatively little grey in the mantle.

I texted the news out and almost immediately found a 1w Glaucous Gull on the spit in front of the island.  I took a poor record shot, as my camera doesn't like low light levels.  I think that this bird looks to have a slightly differently proportioned bill to the bird I saw last month and might well be a different individual.

The patience of my long suffering son had given up by this stage, so I did not have time to check the rest of the roost for Meds or anything else, though a 2w Yellow-legged Gull was reasonably close to the Iceland Gull and a male Shelduck was swimming amongst the gull rafts.

More Spring Movement

3rd March - I received a call this morning from regular Alan S saying that he had a flighty Curlew on the spit, which had already flown off north but returned.  I was unable to visit until late afternoon and was not optimistic that it would still be there.  So I was pleasantly surprised that when I arrived at 4:30pm, the Curlew was busy preening in the south bay of the spit.  I moved to the viewpoint to take a record shot and some 5 minutes later the bird made several alarm calls, took off and flew north and didn't return, so fortuitous timing.  A fox was roaming the spit scattering the large congregation of gulls, so this may have caused the Curlew to move on.  It looked relatively short billed, so was probably a male and it also had a fairly distinct pale central crown stripe.

distinct pale crown stripe

The gull roost numbered some thousands of birds this evening, with huge numbers of Common Gulls.  I don't like to try and count these, as it seems too difficult, but there must have been around 3,000 Commons this evening.  The number of LWHG is now much reduced, but Jim R managed to find a red darvic ringed adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, code KB3T in front of the island.  This will probably be a North Thames Gull Group bird, as it fits their coding and I have sent off for information.  Jim also located an adult Med Gull at about 5:45pm, which soon lost itself amongst the Common Gulls.  It had quite an extensive black hood, but still had a whitish forehead and various other white spots.  To me it appeared significantly more advanced than the adult last Saturday, but they can change quite rapidly.

As I was leaving, a Tawny Owl called from the field next to the car park and was nicely silhouetted in a tree before flying off to hunt.

Banded Plover

2nd March - a whistle stop visit this afternoon before school pick-up.  Very pleasant conditions and hundreds of gulls.  Unfortunately, I only had time for a quick scan and could not find any scarcities amongst them, but we are now entering the passage period for Med Gulls and possibly Ring-billed Gull, so a longer visit may reap rewards.

As I was about to leave, I found a Ringed Plover on the near shore, which is a sure sign Spring is here (or on the way).  Ringed Plovers are historically one of the first waders to pass through, with February sightings not unusual.  However, in recent years, these early birds have become much scarcer and Ringed Plovers are more often seen in late April/May when the tundra race passes through, often with Dunlin.  This bird also sported a BTO metal ring on its left leg - no chance of reading that though.

A ringed Ringed Plover