Upton Warren (35 Viewers)

Wood Sand still at Flashes (best viewed from Cuckoo Hide) plus the obliging Whimbrel, 9 Blackwits and Ringed Plover

Not sure I had seen the Wood Sandpiper....the one(s) that were being pointed out as the one always looked to me to have the white "cut in" on the Breast / Wing area as a Common Sand !!....2 very bad distant pics show this......at the time it was the only bird that kept popping in and out of the reeds so I hadn't snapped the wrong one(s). Granted there was NO bobbing up or down from them........Later on we had at least 4 different birds on the same stretch for a few moments before a squabble broke out and everything went missing for a while.
Had at least 2 Green sands close in and a Common coming in and out in one movement so all the suspects were on site...lol.

1 and 2...suspect Wood Sand
3 Common Sand
4 and 5 Green Sands

More from today...

Very enjoyable 12 hours at the reserve today,good to see so many people,good to see so many butterflies etc,good to see so many birds,I think the sun bought us all out.
please note another quality photo of the Peregrine.

More pics. 71 birds in 12 hours missed two and didn't see some I was expecting to see. 12 waders total Lapwing, Ring Plover, Little Ring Plover, Avocet, Black Tailed Godwit, Redshank, Dunlin, Snipe, Common Sand, Green Sand, Wood Sand, Curlew and Whimbrel. 8-P

Birder Gladys said:

More pics. 71 birds in 12 hours missed two and didn't see some I was expecting to see. 12 waders total Lapwing, Ring Plover, Little Ring Plover, Avocet, Black Tailed Godwit, Redshank, Dunlin, Snipe, Common Sand, Green Sand, Wood Sand, Curlew and Whimbrel. 8-P

Click to expand...

13!!

Phil Andrews said:

13!!

Click to expand...

A Bakers list...lol

Friday 4th August 2:20-6:30pm

Great to be back on the reserve today with some fantastic birds to boot.

MOORS POOL
Common Sandpiper, Redshank, 12 Lapwing, 10 Mute Swan, 110 Canada Geese, 21 Greylag Geese, Egyptian Goose, 5 Cormorant, 2 Grey Heron, 1 GC Grebe, min of 8 adult + 5 juvenile Little Grebe, 3 Gadwall (2 adults + 1 juvenile), 5 Shoveler (including female + 2 juveniles on North Moors), 24 Tufted Duck, 122 Coot, 14 Moorhen, Water Rail, 1 Herring Gull, 1 LBB Gull, 10 Common Tern (7 adults, 2 fledged juveniles + 1 chick), Swift, Kingfisher, Sparrowhawk, Green Woodpecker, GS Woodpecker, first summer Hobby performing very well - perching up in trees on southern boundary and sallying forth across Amy's Marsh / Broadmeadow / lagoon / south west marsh hawking for insects

SAILING POOL
3 Common Tern, 6 Canada Geese, 9 Coot, 4 GC Grebe + 1 young, 1 Moorhen, 1 Tufted Duck

FLASHES
Wood Sandpiper (mostly in the bay behind the first flash reedbed - best viewed from the Cuckoo Hide), 6 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, juvenile Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, juvenile Dunlin, Snipe, 11 Avocet (4 adults + 7 juveniles), 12 Curlew, 9 Black-tailed Godwit (1 adult + 8 juveniles), 107 Lapwing, Whimbrel (often the closest bird to the hide), 10 Canada Geese, 11 Coot, 19 Moorhen, 2 Raven, c50 Stock Dove, Jay, 2 Buzzard, 3 LBB Gull (2 adults + 1 juvenile), 2 Common Tern (adult + juvenile)

Other reports included Treecreeper and Coal Tit at the Moors Pool.

Hopefully the run of decent birds will continue into the weekend - I would put my money on Arctic Tern tomorrow.

keithr said:

Not sure I had seen the Wood Sandpiper....the one(s) that were being pointed out as the one always looked to me to have the white "cut in" on the Breast / Wing area as a Common Sand !!....2 very bad distant pics show this......at the time it was the only bird that kept popping in and out of the reeds so I hadn't snapped the wrong one(s). Granted there was NO bobbing up or down from them........Later on we had at least 4 different birds on the same stretch for a few moments before a squabble broke out and everything went missing for a while.
Had at least 2 Green sands close in and a Common coming in and out in one movement so all the suspects were on site...lol.

1 and 2...suspect Wood Sand
3 Common Sand
4 and 5 Green Sands

Click to expand...

Bird 2 is a Common Sand but suspect that Bird 1 is the Wood; has that rakish look about it

Phil Andrews said:

Bird 2 is a Common Sand but suspect that Bird 1 is the Wood; has that rakish look about it

Click to expand...

Thanks Phil....problem was a bird would be on view then go into the reeds and then one would pop up again and could have been a different bird.

Early morning at the Flashes JTB reports:

Wood Sand, 7 Black-tailed Godwits, 4 Green Sand, 3 Common Sand, Curlew, 13 Avocet (4 adults + 9 juvs), juvenile Peregrine, Lesser Whitethroat, 80 Lapwing, 280 Mallard, 6 Teal, 2 Shoveler, 25 Greylag Geese

Juv Wheatear at the Flashes in gate between second and third flashes as per JTB; later in front of the hide.

Also male and juv Redstart right of main hide and Little Egret.

Black-tailed Godwit

One pleasing trend of recent years is the increased occurrence of Black-tailed Godwit on the reserve where they can often perform at reasonably close range. Attached are a series of charts demonstrating this pattern using three different criteria - number of days present, an estimate of the total number of individual birds occurring (a bare minimum) and a cumulative total of daily counts. I have presented this in two year tranches to try to smooth out any anomalies.

Phil Andrews said:

Bird 2 is a Common Sand but suspect that Bird 1 is the Wood; has that rakish look about it

Click to expand...

Agree with this.

Phil Andrews said:

Juv Wheatear at the Flashes in gate between second and third flashes as per JTB; later in front of the hide.

Also male and juv Redstart right of main hide and Little Egret.

Click to expand...

Wheatear found by Crofty. 👍

Phil Andrews said:

One pleasing trend of recent years is the increased occurrence of Black-tailed Godwit on the reserve where they can often perform at reasonably close range. Attached are a series of charts demonstrating this pattern using three different criteria - number of days present, an estimate of the total number of individual birds occurring (a bare minimum) and a cumulative total of daily counts. I have presented this in two year tranches to try to smooth out any anomalies.

Click to expand...

In conjunction with Phil's informative graphs .
I have noticed that frequently small groups arrive at the Flashes and then a single bird sometimes more remains whilst the bulk of the flock depart. I think the remaining bird/s act as a beacon for other passage blackwits and in human terms is probably saying stop off here #uptonwarren is a good place, safe and plenty of food.
Almost like a continuous relay race as birds leapfrog from one site to the next in their southerly movement to their wintering grounds. All conjecture and my own views, but food for thought. Haven't researched it so might look into it. I also find it strange that a gregarious species arrives en-masse but don't always leave together.

Today at FLASHES 5.20am - 1pm

A lot of passerine activity all around the Flashes literally
The hedges at the bottom of the 'brown' North field bean crop held a considerable amount of passerines. Especially finches, warblers , thrushes, tits and reed bunting. The bulk of the birds were in the two large Hawthorne, from where they were flying into the field to feed. Also holding plenty of birds were the hedges by the climbing frames, the 'confluence', the meadow hedge and the west hedgerow right of the hide where 2 redstarts were. My first wheatear for a couple of years was found by Crofty. It was perched on the stock fence gate between the 2nd and 3rd flash and then spent a good period in front of the hide. Other notnotable migration was swift moving south along with swallows and sand martin. Warblers were seemingly everywhere and in stark contrast to a year ago passerines were certainly more numerous and widespread. Waders were not as numerous as yesterday but overall the waterbirds were plentiful. There was one youngdter left from the 2nd brood of Shoveler and at least 3 of the older brood presumably the other 2 had moved off. Unfortunately the thunderstorms didn't bring the hoped for rarity..nut there's always tomorrow 8-P

Species Count FLASHES:
Little grebe 2 -3rd Flash
Little egret. Grey heron. Greylag 25. Canada's 180.
Mallard 280. Shoveler 4 juvs/ch(3:1). Teal 6. Gadwall. Coot 25. Moorhen c30 (1 ch A few days old).
Avocet 13 (9 juvs 1:1:2:4:1 - including 'runty'). Snipe. Green sand 4. Common sand 3. Black tailed godwit 7 (6 flew ff south at 9.30am). WOOD SAND. Lapwing 80. Curlew 1.
Common Tern ad and juv.
BHG 200. LBBG 35 mostly juvs. Herring gull 10.
hobby. peregrine small juv male. kestrel. sprawk. Buzzard juv calling.
Green woodpecker. kingfisher . stock dove 55.
swift 35 south. swallow 20. house martin 45. sand martin 5
starling 65
redstart 2 (male +juv). wheatear juv.
song thrush 5. Reed warbler 12. sedge w 5. lesser whitethroat 5. whitethroat 4. blackcap 5. chiffchaff 12.
greenfinch 8. linnet 12. goldfinch 15+. bullfinch 4. chaffinch rare at this time.
Reed bunting 12+.

Last night on the reserve.
Moors- Hobby still showing well, hunting dragonflies. 8 Lapwing. Gadwall

Sailing Pool- 1 Common Sand, 3 GC Grebe

Flashes- Wood Sandpiper still until dark, but always distant. 5 Common Sandpiper, 5 Green Sand, 1 Snipe, 15 Curlew, 10 Avocet, 1 juv Black-tailed Godwit, 88 Lapwing. 6 Shoveler, 1 Gadwall, c5 Teal. 2 juvenile Med Gull in a relatively small roost, around 500 BHG. One was moulting into 1w plumage. Wheatear running around on the peninsula in front of the hide and a Yellow Wagtail flew through.

Dave J reports from the Flashes:

Wood Sandpiper, 10 Avocets (4 adults + 6 juveniles), 4 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper, 2 juv Mediterranean Gull, juvenile Redstart

Phil Andrews said:

Dave J reports from the Flashes:

Wood Sandpiper, 10 Avocets (4 adults + 6 juveniles), 4 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper, 2 juv Mediterranean Gull, juvenile Redstart

Click to expand...

Dave J further reports from the Flashes:

11 Avocet (4 adults + 7 juveniles), 2 juvenile Redstart, Egyptian Goose, second summer Common Gull, 14 Curlew.