Anser Birding

4 September 2010 A Chiffchaff in the garden is always nice. JSL reports a Wood Sandpiper, two Avocet and the Red-necked Phalarope at WWT today.

3 September 2010 A juvenile Yellow Wagtail was perched in the willow in the next door garden this morning before flying low across my garden, I have seen lots in recent weeks around my home. A roost of 150 hirundines included Sand Martins in the maize crop at the back of my house in the evening. I also have them perched on wires during the day over the garden.

I was busy doing various weekly things but got away for a few hours to the Forest of Dean to try to photograph drags in flight. I logged two Raven, a male Redstart, a Tree Pipit over calling, c60 Siskin and a Nuthatch but the Black Darters and Common Hawkers were the highlight when the sun shone. Common Darters, Emerald Damselflies and Southern Hawkers were also present. A very relaxing way to while away a couple of hours. Not sure if it best to publish this site as these species are scarce in Glos and need all the help they can get to conserve them. I had a Black Darter resting on my hood and a female Common Hawker on my arm at one point!

Southern Hawker (male)

Black Darter (male)

2 September 2010 Still lots of migrants around, a Spotted Flycatcher included.

Spot  Fly

1 September 2010 An early start to check hedges for migrants and turned up a large number of passerines, whilst checking out one area out for a work party the next day I spotted a passerine flying toward me along the ditch which I suspected of being an Aquatic Warbler. It showed a few times on the edge of the ditch and gave me some scope views and I got some images. I had to share my scope with JSL who also got some good views of the bird. It was moving along the ditch and after seeing it about four more times went into bullrush, we did not see it for an hour after or during a search at 1310-1400 but did see it at dusk. A decent fall had taken place as we logged 27 Sedge Warbler as well as Reed Warblers feeding young. A male Redstart was also a nice addition. The Red-necked Phalarope was still present.

Aquatic Warbler

 

Red-necked Phal

Look at August for more late posted images…

THE NEXT EVENT IS….

No events possible 10 or 11, 17-19 September.

Migrants- A full day out in September (Saturday 4th ) Apologies as it will not be possible, my car is off the road for now but will be sorted by Tuesday.

Upcoming 2010 trips

Isles of Scilly and Cornwall
8-13 October 2010
Taking bookings now….

Champagne Lakes and Cranes, France. Proposed.
9-13 November 2010
Taking bookings if you are interested, itinerary on the website soon.

 North Norfolk 
26-28 November 2010.
Taking bookings, itinerary on the website soon.

2011 trips so far…
Arctic Norway and Finland in March

Directions for events if you meet at Whitminster…. leave Junction 13

 of M5 and head to A38 Roundabout.
On the A38 take exit for GLOUCESTER, WHITMINSTER heading North. Second exit if coming from A38 South or 3rd exit from A419.

Head up the hill and take first left (after Garden Centre) turning into School Lane.
The village hall and car park is immediately on the right of this junction. Meet here. Opposite is the Old Forge Pub which is on the east side of the A38, School Lane is on the West side.

I also use the layby (4-5 cars) just past Whitminster School on the left. To reach here continue down school lane and straight over the mini roundabout, the layby is immediately after the school where the village ends!

BBC Tide Timetable for the West
(note you can search anywhere in Britain from this link) 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast/tides/west.shtml

27-31 August 2010 Lots of new birds around WWT, I will have to update the images when I get a chance. Best birds have been the Curlew Sandpipers (up to 15 juveniles) , a Redstart, the high tide waders including juvenile Knot, a Merlin that was hunting the high tide waders and a juvenile Red-necked Phalarope. All of them are pictured above/below.

26 August 2010 Thirteen mostly breeding plumaged Bar-tailed Godwits, six Knot, three juvenile Ruff and the adult Little Stint were wader highlights, the Little-ringed Plover commutes between the estuary mud and the Rushy. A second summer Common Tern was around at high tide. Six Wheatear were logged too.

25 August 2010 Still lots of waders about, new birds include a juvenile Little-ringed Plover in the Rushy, an adult and two juvenile Little Stint.

24 August 2010  Went in to work early with JSL to try to count some of the birds which are around in high numbers, with Gord Youdale counting the scrapes we had a good haul, it was a good move we logged a minimum of 126 Yellow Wagtail, 703 Ringed Plover and 900 Dunlin plus a total of 19 species of wader. The first juvenile Golden Plover was ‘in’ today. In the Rushy this afternoon were we are all busy on various improvements to the lake we had the usual daily flock of Yellow Wagtail around the digger etc, in fact all three wagtail sp are seen daily here, up to 60 Black-tailed Godwit feeding in the shallows and a juvenile Whimbrel over.

Little Stint-first juvenile of the year

Knot and Dunlin

Adult Turnstone (moulting)

Yellow Wagtail at WWT Slimbridge
With what could be over 100 present this morning it will long live in my memory that August 2010 has been the best I have ever known for this species locally.

22-23 August 2010 Back at WWT Slimbridge and plenty to write about, all sightings are on the WWT website. I find it very pleasing to look through a thousand waders that are on the estuary due to the heavy rains, 380 Ringed Plover, 550 Dunlin, 50 Sanderling, 7 Knot and single adult Turnstone, first-summer Bar-tailed Godwit, adult Golden Plover, juv Common Sandpiper,  4 Greenshank plus the other waders on the scrapes. Nick Goatman reports 4 Arctic Terns on Frampton Townfield Lake. Also very large numbers of passerines, warblers and especially Yellow Wagtail, I reckon there are over 100 on the reserve and am seeing and hearing them all day long (when not on or in machinery). I had three Whinchat and 5 Wheatear yesterday.

19-21 August 2010 A weekend in Bournemouth, the Friday afternoon was spent at Studland where I went for a walk for 1.5 hours on the slopes of Ballard Down. Perhaps as many as 1000 Adonis Blue Butterflies were on show as well as Brown Argus and Chalkhill Blues. Nice to see and hear Sandwich Terns from the sister in laws porch!

 

9-18 August 2010 A few birding sessions at work and a bit of dragonfly watching, the highlights are in images. Three Spotted Flycatcher were at the Tack Piece hedge on the 15th.

Buzzard i.d….could be useful as now is the time for Honey’s passing through
First one a WWT Slimbridge Common Buzzard the second a Honey Buzzard in Corsica.

 

1-8 August 2010 Corsica trip with the family, a full trip report is on the relevant page.

1-8 August 2010 I was in Corsica for the week, trip  report to follow soon…

31 July 2010 A day trip to the New Forest. See the trip report.

28 July 2010 A pair of Southern Hawker were along the back of the South Lake.

27 July 2010 JSL and I had at least 45 Yellow Wagtail feeding among the cattle on the Dumbles at WWT Slimbridge.

Common Tern see below

25 July 2010 At WWT Slimbridge I had a darvic ringed second summer Mediterranean Gull in the morning gull roost, I will follow up the sighting and report back. Plenty of waders still about the scrapes with two Sanderling seen on the morning tide and three in the evening, an adult Turnstone, a Whimbrel and five Ringed Plover were also added to the list. The evening gull special produced a juvenile and adult breeding Mediterranean Gull and c25 adult Yellow legged Gulls. RGB reported a fem/imm Marsh Harrier around the 100 Acre from 0800 and I saw it cruise down the estuary and Dumbles from 0905-0920 where it flushed pretty much everything it flew over. A roost of c40 Yellow Wagtails was very much of note, we saw 17 chasing a Kestrel. I caught and released a Common Tern that was entagled in the 100 Acre early evening whilst checking the colony.

24 July 2010 No birding.

‘Green Sand’
The last week of July usually sees the peak counts of this bird around the WWT scrapes with figures of over 30 not uncommon, a highly mobile bird which makes a bike and decent pedalling speed crucial for attaining an accurate count.

17-23 July 2010 The only birding I have managed has been at WWT Slimbridge where passage waders continue to arrive around the scrapes. On 21st I had three Greenshank, 2 Ruff, 44 Dunlin including two juveniles ( I had my first juv on 18th), five Little ringed Plover, 11 Green Sandpiper and 40 Lapwing all on the Top New Piece alone. A flock of up to 44 Black-tailed Godwit, 20 Redshank and a few Common Sandpipers have also been around. As for returning passage birds a Ringed Plover on 18/19th and  two Snipe on the 22nd were a sign of things to come. I discovered a second Emerald Damselfly on the reserve on the 19th.

16 July 2010 No birding just limping but I had heard that P. Taylor scored with a Storm Petrel on the Severn.

15 July 2010 A very gusty day on the Severn, despite a few birders watching over it not seabirds were noted. 91 Dunlin, 6 Little ringed Plover, a Greenshank, 40 Black-tailed Godwit were the best I could muster. I did spend the night and most of the day in pain with the damaged nerve endings in my foot ‘erupting’ from 0230 in the morning, the sheer delight of having a steroid injection directly into them woke me up though.

14 July 2010 Still a good set of waders around the WWT scrapes and Whimbrel on the estuary. A or the Grasshopper Warbler I had yesterday was reeling at Middle Point.

Ruff two males moulting out of breeding plumage. One of these individuals returns to moult here every year for the last 4/5 years. Also a Redshank in the same image, a juvenile was present at the South Lake this afternoon.

13 July 2010 Best birds logged for me were two Ruff, two Greenshank, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Common Sandpiper, 44 Black-tailed Godwit and a reeling Grasshopper Warbler.

12 July 2010 Highlight of the day was my first Emerald Damselfly for the reserve, possibly a first site record? This was a female.

11 July 2010 A good selection of waders around the WWT scrapes and a decent set of dragonflies seen on the safaris including 2 Scarce Chasers.

10 July 2010 A day at the cricket watching England v Bangladesh. A Common Blue Damselfly landed on my Harriet’s hand whilst watching the game.

Yardy bowls, Anderson fields..

Three ex-England captains…

9 July 2010  A White-tailed Lapwing turned up at WWT Slimbridge, I was called by Dave Paynter to say a visitor had got some video (Mr Giles Diggle) of this bird but when he looked for it had gone from the scrape. Dave was busy with a safari for the Slimbridge school group so I went in to try to relocate it along with Rich Hearn who was looking at South Lake, I  checked all the possible areas and eventually found it on the Top New Piece. The school kids all added this bird to their lifelists and were impressed. This constitutes a first for Gloucestershire and Slimbridge. These images are affected by heat haze and looking through vegetation.

White-tailed Lapwing

 

8 July 2010 A full day out with JJS in Berkshire and Surrey looking for dragonflies and butterflies. We had a good time of it with 7 Downy Emeralds, Golden ringed, Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer, Broad bodied Chaser, Keeled Skimmer, Black, Ruddy and Common Darters, Brown Hawker and Emerald, Common Blue, Azure and Large Red Damselflies.

Downy Emerald, Paice’s Wood, Berkshire.

Keeled Skimmer, male.

6-7 July 2010 Up to 15 Green Sandpipers at WWT.

5 July 2010 Back at WWT Slimbridge..more arrivals of post breeding waders, pick was a juvenile Little-ringed Plover on South Lake.

2-4 July 2010 Got back from Madeira at 0100 and was up for 0545 for a trip to Pembrokeshire and Skomer Island, the trip report and images on the trip report page.

1 July 2010 My last day in Madeira was spent aboard the Ventura do Mar, we had a brilliant pelagic, probably the best I have ever been on! Trip report and images on the relevant page.

28-30 June 2010 Flew to Madeira during the afternoon and was on a boat and sailing out to sea by the evening. A repeat of last years trip for seabirds and endemics, full trip report soon.

Bulwer’s at sea

28 June 2010 Out at WWT by 0600 where the insects were flying again this early in the morning. A flock of 14 Black-tailed Godwit and 48 Redshank were on the South Lake, there were 80 of the latter yesterday. Another post breeding flock of 120 Lapwing were gathered on the Top New Piece. Last night we had a Buff Ermine Moth in the bathroom with a Dark Arches the night before.

27 June 2010 The heatwave continues, WWT was becoming ever quieter as the afternoon approached, an exodus from midday with World Cup interest kicking in. The car park was very quiet by 1500 but was it worth it? A splendid day for insects at WWT, 2 Painted Ladies and 15 dragonfly and damselfly species noted with Hairy Dragonfly still on the wing. Still more birds arriving on site but nothing out of the ordinary.

26 June 2010 An afternoon in the Forest of Dean again with the family, we found a Silver-washed Fritillary, four Golden-ringed Dragonflies and noted plenty of Siskin about the Cannop Valley.

25 June 2010 A few hours in the Forest of Dean to have a break from the PC was well worth it, lots of dragonflies including my first Downy Emerald and Emerald Damselflies of the year.

22-24 June 2010 The scorching summer weather is so good for insect watching, I have loved seeing so many dragonflies and butterflies on the wing. On the 23rd a Breeding wader Survey produce 6 pairs of Redshank with young in the 100 Acre, a Snipe, two broods of Yellow Wagtail, 4 Scarce Chasers in new areas and lots of drags and damsels, at least 3000 Blue-tailed Damselfly noted. On 24th I was involved in a team effort at WWT to ring the Black-headed Gulls on the South Lake. 34 were marked many with darvics.

21 June 2010 Midsummers day at WWT, the Marsh Harrier showed well on my evening safari and appears to be moulting the crown rapidly. It was around the 100 Acre again along with 4 Scarce Chasers. A very warm evening. I had a Marbled White in the Green Lane.

Marsh Harrier, WWT

20 June 2010 A Scarce Chaser in the 100 Acre again.

15-19 June 2010 Away on an Anser trip to Northumberland for four nights and Upper Teesdale on the way home. A full trip report available soon but a few images for now.

The Straw’s Bridge, Derbyshire Great Reed Warbler performed very well.

As eventually did the Saltholme RSPB Broad-billed Sandpiper.

A couple of good birds to break up the journey but our main point of focus was of course seabirds.

13 June 2010 Some birds increasing as they return to the WWT reserve eg Teal and Curlew but still fairly quiet. A Grasshopper Warbler was in full song at Middle Point. The Marsh Harrier  I saw on the 10th was back over the 100 Acre/50 Acre/Bull Ground this afternoon. A very interesting bird. My first WWT reserve male Scarce Chaser of the year was also in the 100 Acre.

Marsh Harrier probably a first summer male, WWT 100 Acre. Taken from the viewing platform with Panasonic Lumix DMC FS7 and Swarovski HD 65, x20-60 scope MJM.

The greyish feathering moulting through on the upperwing and rump indicates a male, it lacks much in the way of a cream crown only flecks of it showing. It does give the appearance of having a white rump which is misleading. We just do not see enough of these in Glos to become experts on ageing, this of course may change with potential colonisation of our county.

 

Gropper

11-12 June 2010 No birding.

10 June 2010 Whilst mowing a few parts of the Bull Ground field/marsh at WWT I saw a bird move near to the tractor, I got out thinking it is very late for a Jack Snipe when a Quail popped up and flew across the field calling. I also noted a brood of Shoveler with 9 in tow, two broods of Yellow Wagtail, two broods of Skylark and a Marsh Harrier flew through aftre quartering the fields, see 13 June for pics. A Green Sandpiper on the Tack Piece was the first returning bird of the autumn passage for me.

A Quail….honest.

Juvenile Yellow Wag

Female Shoveler and ducklings

 

9 June 2010 Was slightly gutted about missing a WWT reserve first….a male Velvet Scoter on the estuary from 0550-0620. A Spoonbill was reported as well at 1000 and a Cattle Egret during the middle of the day. I saw this bird in flight at the BNP from the Holden Tower with Gordon Youdale at c1415 but it was heading toward the canal from the cattle herd. We have not seen it since but it has many herds to choose from locally, a birder with time could probably locate it in a thorough search of the area.

8 June 2010 A Greenshank, 5 Grey Plover and small flocks of Dunlin and Ringed Plover were notable for June. LPA saw a Little Stint and 2 Whimbrel also.

6-7 June 2010 No birding.

5 June 2010 A stroll through Nagshead RSPB was a nice way to while away a couple of hours. Apart from spending time with  my wife, a few pairs of Pied Flycatchers feeding young, singing Wood Warbler, 2 Broad bodied Chasers and an Emperor emerging from the pond were the highlights. Nearby we watched Small Pearl bordered Fritillaries, a Dingy Skipper and Four spot and Broad Bodied Chasers at the Parkend/New Fancy View junction.

SPBFrit in the FOD.

 

4 June 2010 I got married to my partner who is now Mrs Harriet McGill. A wonderful day for both of us and so great to see so many family in friends together at once! An evening stroll from our hotel in Aylburton, Glos up a country lane was a fine reminder of what English summer evenings can be like. Lots of bats, screaming Swifts c30 and nectar feeding moths everywhere, very nice.

3 June 2010 Held off from birding today as I was so busy but had to fold late afternoon to dash to Blorenge in Wales for a Marmora’s Warbler, all very last minute and on a tight time shedule but bagged this fine little bird nonetheless. It is still present at the time of writing (13th June). What was as impressive was the high concentration of territorial Whinchats, calling Red Grouse, Stonechats, lots of passerines, Ravens and more. A good place allround.

Club-tailed Dragonfly Gomphus vulgatissimus

Duke of Burgundy

 

Forester Moth

2 June 2010 A visit to the Mythe at Tewkesbury where JJS and I logged an Emperor, 50 Red-eyed Damselflies, 5 White-legged, Blue-tailed, Common Blue, 50+ Banded Demoiselle damselflies, 3 Club-tailed Dragonfly, 2 Scarce Chasers (males), and three Black-tailed Skimmers. We also had a Kingfisher here and Curlew calling. An hour spent at the Prestbury Butterfly Reserve, Cleeve Hill gave us 2 Duke of Burgundy butterflies, a Forester Moth three Tree Pipits and 4 Yellowhammer.

1 June 2010 No wildlife watching today.