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