Amazing BHG ring recovery

I've had around six Black-headed Gull ring reads over the last few weeks, all white ringed birds of varying ages ringed as chicks in both Gloucestershire and Berkshire. I've had the replies from the ringers this weekend, and one of the records was particularly amazing. I saw it as I was locking the hides at the end of the day and just managed to digi-bin in - I had no chance of reading it with just looking through the binoculars.

White 20S4

It was ringed on the 7th June at a breeding colony at Hosehill Lake LNR in West Berkshire, and was last seen there just the day before I saw it. It's the project's earliest ever long distant movement for a juvenile.

There's been 20 or 30 Mediterranean Gulls around at the moment, two of which I've been able to read the rings of. Both of them were of the same age and were ringed at the same breeding colony in Calais, France, green 8M0 being a bird I saw off Llanelli beach last autumn.

The adult Little Gull was in front of the Peter Scott hide on Tuesday morning, the only other bird of note during the last week.

Pectoral Sandpiper

This week's excitement came in the form of Pectoral Sandpiper found by a visiting birder on Monday, a first for me. Luckily, I had just finished completing a job as the text came in. I ran over to the hide and after a few minutes managed to get on the bird. It always remained partially obscured behind the juncus and some godwits, but at times it showed well enough for me to see the clear chest line and clean sides. This is the best photo I could get:

Pectoral Sandpiper

Poms on the estuary, another Little Gull and Spot Fly

Tuesday saw the arrival of a low pressure system with very high winds blowing up into the Burry Inlet, so I was eager to see if it would deliver any seabirds for my morning bird count. On my initial scan, the estuary was devoid of any birds flying over it, and in the end the only seabird I could muster was a single Sandwich Tern, however a few Turnstone flying about with some Dunlin and Ringed Plover was was a welcome addition to my patch list.

Later in the day I was told that an adult Little Gull had been seen shortly after I had left the hide. Pretty annoying since I had been constantly checking the small flock of Black-headed Gulls with Little Gull being very much in mind.

Little Gull

Possibly the same bird as the one at Sandy Water Park?

In the evening after dinner, I headed out to Machynys point for the high tide and with the hope of seeing some skuas. I wasn't disappointed as I soon got onto a Great Skua flying high over the estuary. Then a pale morph Pomarine Skua entered my field of view, and then another! It's always amazing seeing your first skuas of the year. I could sit and watch them for hours. They're such cool birds!

An 'atmospheric' shot of a Pomarine Skua

On Wednesday I had a second go at an evening 'sea' watch. It was much quieter with no skuas, however two Eiders (an adult male and a 1st summer male) which flew out of the estuary and towards the sea were the first of the year for patch.

Later in the week while doing a breeding bird survey I saw my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year around the fishing platforms and I almost stepped on this Grass Snake right in the middle of the path.

Grass Snake

And here are some more photos of the Little Gull...

Hairy Dragonfly and Cuckoos

The only birds of note this week have been two Cuckoos; the first a brief view of one which I flushed off the floor as a rounded a corner, and the second a heard only which seemed to move steadily to the east.

I had my first sightings of Hairy Dragonflies this week. On Thursday one was flying around a small pool by the Peter Scott hide before perching up to roost for the night on some bramble. The next day as I was walking past after closing the hides, I had a brief scan of the same bramble bush with my binoculars, and sure enough picked it up in exactly the same place.

Hairy Dragonfly

More Migrants

Last Sunday I had a text to say that there was a Little Ringed Plover on the Deep Water Lake. At first I decided I would wait until Monday morning to see it, but then quickly changed my mind as Little Ringed Plover hasn't been seen at the reserve for a few years. I'm glad I made that decision because on Monday it was nowhere to be seen!

Also present was my first Common Sandpiper of the year for patch.

Either one, two or three male Garganey were present on Monday, all seen at different locations so hard to know just how many there were. A summer plumaged Spotted Redshank was in front of the British Steel hide on Tuesday which was really nice to see.

New birds for the year seen during mid week were 30+ Whimbrel, a few singing Lesser Whitethroats, Whitethoats and a Swift. Two male Ruff were on the NRA fields on Wednesday and another had joined them on Friday.

Ruff

On Thursday morning before work, I had a couple of hours look at the estuary in the hope of seeing two Little Terns which were there the previous day, but I ended up missing them by a few minutes which was annoying. There were however some rather lovely looking Bar-tailed Godwits along the shoreline, and the bushes were alive with the sound of singing Whitethoats and Lesser Whitethoats.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Today I spent the morning at Machynys point, but the only birds of note were two Sandwich Terns, a Gannet and three House Martins, plus more Lesser Whitethoats.

Linnet

Little Gull

I made two visits to Sandy Water Park today in the hope that the Little Gull found a couple of days ago by Barry would still be there. On the first visit at 8am, the only small gulls on the lake were two Black-headed Gulls, so I had a quick check of the estuary and North Dock Lake and decided I would check back in the late afternoon.

I arrived back at 5:30pm, and was pleased to see a good number of gulls there. It didn't take me long to find the Little Gull which was sat on the water with some Black-headed Gulls, occasionally lifting off to give short flights. What a stunning little bird! Here are a series of photos I digiscoped of it...

A Gannet was fishing in the estuary, and on the sand bar there were 18 Sandwich Terns with eight Common Gulls, a 3cy Mediterranean Gull and c.40+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

On North Dock Lake the only bird of note was a Common Sandpiper on a pontoon.

Common Sandpiper

Egyptian Goose and GS Cuckoo

An Egyptian Goose turned up on the Lagoon on Wednesday, and after a failed attempt to see it during my lunch break, I had another look at the end of the day and found it right in front of the Observatory.

During my breeding bird survey, I heard the first five Sedge Warblers of the year, singing around the header pond and Eastern Scrapes. The first House Martin also flew over with c.15+ Sand Martin and c.40+ Swallow.

Egyptian Goose

After work on Thursday, I went to see the Great Spotted Cuckoo that had been found just south of the Brecon Beacons. It didn't seem very promising on arrival, passing half a dozen birders leaving the site having failed to see it, and being told that it had flown off two hours ago. A small group of us started scanning the hills and after about 15 minutes I picked it up on a fence line just under a mile away. It hopped along the fence line for about 20 minutes, being constantly mobbed by a few Meadow Pipits, and flew off to the right and out of view giving some nice if a little distant flight views.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Bee Fly and Gropper

While out replacing some posts on a fence line around the saltmarsh this morning, I heard my first Grasshopper Warbler and Reed Warbler coming from the same reedbed on Machynys golf course. Some nice early records and nice to hear them both singing.

On the reserve, this Bee Fly was on one of our reptile piles, as was my first Common Lizard of the year.

A pretty cool looking insect!

Common Lizard

There are a fair few hoverflies out now too, including this which a believe is Epistrophe grossulariae.

Spring

It really feels like spring has arrived this week. I saw my first Swallows on Monday along with the first Willow Warblers. On Tuesday there was an overnight arrival of Blackcap with eight singing on site along with the same numbers of Willow Warblers. During my breeding bird survey, I counted 20 singing Chiffchaff around the Millennium Wetlands.

A number of new butterflies were also out, with my first Orange-tips, Commas, Speckled Woods and Green-veined Whites.

At least ten Mediterranean Gulls have been around over the last two weeks, so it seems like its not a question of whether they'll breed again, but how many. Most have been adults, but there have also been some third year birds.

Yesterday I walked along the coast path to Machynys point where I found my first Wheatear of the year flitting around on the rocky shore. A look out over the estuary revealed my first Sandwich Tern fishing, while over the golf course were c.100 Sand Martins and two Swallows. In the bushes there were eight Willow Warbler, four Chiffchaff and three Blackcap.

On a quick visit to North Dock Lake, a migrant Common Sandpiper flew up and headed down river.

Wheatear

Garganey

I caught up with one of the Garganeys at the centre today, and after doing three rounds of the hides I jammed into it swimming a few metres in front of the Goodall's hide. It was so close I could hear it's quiet crackling call.

Garganey

There were impressive numbers of waders on the lagoon considering it was low tide. I didn't have time to count them, but there were c.350+ Black-tailed Godwit (including some stunning summer plumage birds), c.100+ Redshank, eight Greenshank and three Spotted Redshank which were starting to gain some flecks of their summer plumage.

Black-tailed Godwit

Spotted Redshank

Scaup

A male Scaup was on the lake at Sandy Water Park this morning. It was diving constantly suggesting it was new in, perhaps overnight. Also present on the lakes; 20+ Tufted Duck, 10+ Pochard, 10+ Gadwall, 6+ Shoveler and a couple of Teal.

Scaup

Scandinavian Rock Pipits

On a post work visit to North Dock Lake last Friday, I found two littoralis Rock Pipits feeding with a couple of Pied Wagtails around the shore of the lake.

On these photos you can see the subtle tinges of blue coming through in the head, shoulders and scapulars. The underparts are relatively clean with no smudging. At times the bird appeared to show some pinky areas in the breast and around the neck, the latter of which you can see in the first photo. The legs were pinky orange and the outer tail feathers were a dull white.

The other bird, photographed bellow showed the same coloured tones in the plumage but had a slightly dirtier look to the underparts with bolder streaks. It also had a pale based to the bill and a few flecks of white above the eye - perhaps a stronger supercilium moulting through?

On Monday I heard my first singing Chiffchaff of the year, and this morning I was lucky enough to enjoy close views of some displaying Great Crested Grebes at Sandy Water Park, with four present in total.

Med Gull at breeding grounds

An adult Mediterranean Gull was at the Black-headed Gull breeding site on the Lagoon this morning, the first I've seen at the reserve all winter. Last year was the first time that Meds successfully bred anywhere in Wales so I'm hoping for a repeat this year.

Mediterranean Gull

Also present were two ringed Black-headed Gulls (White 2K61 and 2N27), both from Slimbridge, and ringed in 2007 and 2010 respectively as chicks. It'll be interesting to see if they stick around to breed.

On the Saline Lagoon there was a ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull, initially ringed at a landfill site in Gloucestershire in the winter of 2008, it has also been seen regularly during the summer along the west coast of Portugal.

Lesser Black-backed Gull - Blue CVX

Also present here were four Spotted Redshank, ten Greenshank, 18 Redshank, 379 Black-tailed Godwit, a Grey Plover, a Snipe and 85 Wigeon.

In the Millennium Wetlands I saw my first butterflies of the year; five Brimstone, two Small Tortoiseshell and a Peacock.

Peacock

The last few weeks

The last few weeks have been quite quiet bird wise, but a few notable species have included a Jack Snipe flushed from the saltmarsh along with c.30 Snipe, a Kittiwake over the estuary on a stormy day, and my only Fieldfare of the winter on Friday last week.

Lapwing numbers have dropped right off now with only single figures on the saline lagoon and a couple on the breeding site on Deep Lake.

A couple of weeks ago the four Spotted Redshank were still around but just over the last week they seem to have disappeared.

This male Goldeneye showed well a few days ago after being brought in on the spring super tide.

Goldeneye

Hybrid Herring x LBBG

A presumed hybrid Herring Gull x Lesser Black-backed Gull has been present at Sandy Water Park for at least three weeks now.

It shows a mantle colour intermediate between the two, pretty much spot on for Yellow-legged Gull (maybe a bit pale?), a small amount of light diffuse head streaking (should be concentrated around the eye in YLG), a dark red/orange orbital ring, a rounded head and a relatively weak looking beak with the red gonys spot not reaching the upper mandible. The overall size was smaller than both Lesser Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull, and only a little larger than Common Gull. Leg colour, shown in some of the photos bellow appeared a dull yellow with a hint of pink - a typical colour for these hybrids, and not the bright yellow you should see in YLG. The open wing showed plenty of black in the wing tip with only a short mirror on p10. Both wings showed a complete black band on p5 - not the very thin or broken band you see in most hybrids, however not as thick as you'd expect from YLG.

I suppose it's possible that it could be a small female Yellow-legged Gull, but with most features pointing towards a Herring x LBBG hybrid I think it's likely that that's what it is.

Smaller and lighter coloured than Lesser Black-backed Gull. Small amount of head streaking.

Darker than Herring Gull...

...and Common Gull

Yellow pink legs.

Small mirror on p10 an black band on p5.

At the wetland centre, a Merlin chasing a Snipe over the grounds at almost supersonic speed was the exciting to watch. The only other addition to my PWC was a Treecreeper.

A female-type Black Redstart on garage roofs from my front door this afternoon was nice to see - a different bird to the 1st winter male present in November.