Gavo
Well-known member
Nope, not going to rain saturday, I have it on good authority :t:
-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Upton Warren (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter andythomas
- Start date
Nope, not going to rain saturday, I have it on good authority :t:
Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
For what its worth, the BBC forecast some light rain at 1pm tomorrow and heavy rain on Tuesday.
upstarts1979
Well-known member
Just back from my 12 hour marathon. Between 6 and 7pm there were two heavy showers, but made no impression ( its a waist of time watching weather forecast's)
With Phil beating me to the Flashes this morning, I decided to do the 'bushes' instead of the lagoons.
I spent an hour between the steps and the bridge. The elders in this area are attracting good numbers of 'sylvias' to the berries and other warblers to the insects. The early morning is best as the sun rises and warms the bushes up. But even at 9.30am there were 4 Blackcap, 2 reed warbler, 3 willow warbler (1 singing), 6 or 7 chiffchaffs, goldcrest as well as common garden birds. In the Hen pool at least 6 reed and a sedge warbler were seen. Also a very small black shrew with a short tail scuttled over the mud. I checked all the other hedges and passerine habitat all over the reserve. I saw at least 15 reed warblers, 10 Blackcap, 20+ chiffchaff, and 4 or 5 willow warbler.
To add to Phil's list were: at The Flashes. Common Sand 5 (4 juvs), a juv green sand with a white outer primary on its right wing - very obvious in flight. Curlew 16, adult Common Gull briefly tonight. and 60+ stock dove,
At the Moors: 2 water rail ad + juv , in front of west hide, Sand martin 2 , swallow 10, house martin 40.
B
John
Heavy
With Phil beating me to the Flashes this morning, I decided to do the 'bushes' instead of the lagoons.
I spent an hour between the steps and the bridge. The elders in this area are attracting good numbers of 'sylvias' to the berries and other warblers to the insects. The early morning is best as the sun rises and warms the bushes up. But even at 9.30am there were 4 Blackcap, 2 reed warbler, 3 willow warbler (1 singing), 6 or 7 chiffchaffs, goldcrest as well as common garden birds. In the Hen pool at least 6 reed and a sedge warbler were seen. Also a very small black shrew with a short tail scuttled over the mud. I checked all the other hedges and passerine habitat all over the reserve. I saw at least 15 reed warblers, 10 Blackcap, 20+ chiffchaff, and 4 or 5 willow warbler.
To add to Phil's list were: at The Flashes. Common Sand 5 (4 juvs), a juv green sand with a white outer primary on its right wing - very obvious in flight. Curlew 16, adult Common Gull briefly tonight. and 60+ stock dove,
At the Moors: 2 water rail ad + juv , in front of west hide, Sand martin 2 , swallow 10, house martin 40.
B
JohnHeavy
Brian Stretch
Well-known member
The next optics day at Upton Warren will be on the day of the 'All-dayer' on Saturday September 3rd. Details available here.
The new Worcester Birding site is now here. Many of the pictures etc from the old site will be transferred across in due course.
Brian
___________
Birding Today
The new Worcester Birding site is now here. Many of the pictures etc from the old site will be transferred across in due course.
Brian
___________
Birding Today
forgetfulelephant
Well-known member
Just back from my 12 hour marathon. Between 6 and 7pm there were two heavy showers, but made no impression ( its a waist of time watching weather forecast's)
With Phil beating me to the Flashes this morning, I decided to do the 'bushes' instead of the lagoons.
I spent an hour between the steps and the bridge. The elders in this area are attracting good numbers of 'sylvias' to the berries and other warblers to the insects. The early morning is best as the sun rises and warms the bushes up. But even at 9.30am there were 4 Blackcap, 2 reed warbler, 3 willow warbler (1 singing), 6 or 7 chiffchaffs, goldcrest as well as common garden birds. In the Hen pool at least 6 reed and a sedge warbler were seen. Also a very small black shrew with a short tail scuttled over the mud. I checked all the other hedges and passerine habitat all over the reserve. I saw at least 15 reed warblers, 10 Blackcap, 20+ chiffchaff, and 4 or 5 willow warbler.
To add to Phil's list were: at The Flashes. Common Sand 5 (4 juvs), a juv green sand with a white outer primary on its right wing - very obvious in flight. Curlew 16, adult Common Gull briefly tonight. and 60+ stock dove,
At the Moors: 2 water rail ad + juv , in front of west hide, Sand martin 2 , swallow 10, house martin 40.
B
Heavy
Plus: 7 Teal, 8 Shovellers, 1 Green Sandpiper, Juvenile Female Kingfisher, 2 Little Grebe.
Rob
forgetfulelephant
Well-known member
wheatearlp
Well-known member
August 20th
Highlight in nearly four hours this morning and early afternoon was a Swift over the Moors Pool (Paul C had four earlier). Wader numbers were fairly low - Green Sandpipers 5, Common Sandpipers 2, Snipe 1 - with both Redshank and Greenshank reported earlier. Duck numbers seem to be slowly increasing with 32 Teal across the reserve along with 7 Shoveler. The immature Shelduck was still on the Flashes. There were around 20 Sand Martins on the Moors Pool, with a few each of Swallow and House Martin.
Mike
Highlight in nearly four hours this morning and early afternoon was a Swift over the Moors Pool (Paul C had four earlier). Wader numbers were fairly low - Green Sandpipers 5, Common Sandpipers 2, Snipe 1 - with both Redshank and Greenshank reported earlier. Duck numbers seem to be slowly increasing with 32 Teal across the reserve along with 7 Shoveler. The immature Shelduck was still on the Flashes. There were around 20 Sand Martins on the Moors Pool, with a few each of Swallow and House Martin.
Mike
Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
Hi Paul - I think 81 is beatable with the right conditions (but probably only on the Spring All-Dayer). I had notched up 79 in this year's event with a Common Gull at the death, without going to the Eddy for the Garden Warbler or keeping too much of an eye of the sky for Hobby. If I had known I was closing in on your milestone I may have tried a bit harder!
Phil
upstarts1979
Well-known member
4 pics from yesterday
1. How the 1st Flash is dropping, viewed from 1st hide
2. The waved effect of the drying mud
3. A common sand on the soft mud, although not seen in the pic there were swarms of minute flies in front of it.
4. The new waders of the 2nd Flash - stock doves 35 were on the dry mud.
1. How the 1st Flash is dropping, viewed from 1st hide
2. The waved effect of the drying mud
3. A common sand on the soft mud, although not seen in the pic there were swarms of minute flies in front of it.
4. The new waders of the 2nd Flash - stock doves 35 were on the dry mud.
Attachments
midlands birder
Well-known member
The Moors was quite quiet this evening.
A single Common Tern (forgot to mention it in the log), an adult Water rail, 2 Pochard, 6 Shoveler and 2 Green sand,
The flashes was alittle better.
A suprise came when from the 1st flash hide, i was scanning the mud at the back, and a Common Snipe walked out across the mud, odd time of year for one??
The large amount of mud infront of the hide, held a Green sand, a common sand, a lapwing and the Redshank, i was actually suprised by the amount of mud here.
The Gull roost, although a little bigger than of late, didnt attract any other gulls,
However i was suprised to have 5 Common Sand dotted along the 1st/2nd flash area, as well as 7 Green sand.
2 Yellow Wagtail overflew the flashes going south calling which were my 4th birds in 3 visits!! 81 Lapwing was on the deck as we left, and the Curlew flock strugled to 30 birds.
The Little owl was on the chimney
MB
A single Common Tern (forgot to mention it in the log), an adult Water rail, 2 Pochard, 6 Shoveler and 2 Green sand,
The flashes was alittle better.
A suprise came when from the 1st flash hide, i was scanning the mud at the back, and a Common Snipe walked out across the mud, odd time of year for one??
The large amount of mud infront of the hide, held a Green sand, a common sand, a lapwing and the Redshank, i was actually suprised by the amount of mud here.
The Gull roost, although a little bigger than of late, didnt attract any other gulls,
However i was suprised to have 5 Common Sand dotted along the 1st/2nd flash area, as well as 7 Green sand.
2 Yellow Wagtail overflew the flashes going south calling which were my 4th birds in 3 visits!! 81 Lapwing was on the deck as we left, and the Curlew flock strugled to 30 birds.
The Little owl was on the chimney
MB
upstarts1979
Well-known member
Apparently 2 greenshank went through the flashes at 6.30am this morning Dave J
upstarts1979
Well-known member
Yes Craig I saw one yesterday, they do usually start to appear about now. These are passage birds being more conspicuous during the day, rather than the usually crepuscular activities of our wintering birds. I think we need to spend more time at the 1st flash hide with the present conditions.
B
John
Last edited:
Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
That's the first multiple record of Greenshank this year.
rollingthunder
Well-known member
And the first use of the word......crepuscular!
Laurie -
Laurie -
Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
upstarts1979
Well-known member
Think John must have the only dictionary in Redditch
I did go to a grammar school Boys..just not very often 8-P
As this is probably going to become more likely and more severe in future is the Trust considering some kind of water level management?
I'm not sure of the resistance to drought of this kind of unique ecosystem but imagine it would be easy to tip beyond a point of no return too easily?
Paul
Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
Hi Paul,
Because of the unique nature of the Flashes it is very hard to manage the water levels for the exceptional lack of rain this year. There are really only three options:-
(1) Pump water in from the Hen Brook. There are two problems here - the quality of the water in the Hen Brook (which may be affected by agricultural run off; certainly the Trust specialists who recently surveyed the reserve had concerns on this count) and the impact on the salinity of the Flashes (UW is a SSSI based on the its salt tolerant / salt loving plants and I could see any insertion of fresh water to be damaging to this ecosystem and wouldnt receive the approval of English Nature).
(2) Pump water in from the Third Flash. Again there will be differences between the salinity of the bodies of water. Whilst not be sure of the exact volumes I doubt emptying the Third Flash would considerably raise the level in the second and first Flashes and would totally ruin the Third Flash which would very quickly just become a large reedbed.
(3) Keep the water level of the Flashes high throughout the Spring and early summer. This will have an impact of the nesting waders, both in terms of available shoreline / shallow water to feed and potential flooding of nest sites in heavy rain. Given the choice I would personally rather have 20ish wader chicks raised each year than the chance of a Spotshank on passage.
What we can do is create a range of different heights of shoreline and bays so waders can have access to feeding grounds at a variety of differing water hieghts; worked started on this last year and will be reviewed again this autumn. We will also look at digging out the channel at the back of the Flashes that provides a through-follow of water in dry summers between the first and second Flashes.
Phil
Thanks Phil, I'd guessed it wouldn't be easy.
But this summer may become less "exceptional" sooner rather than later and any solution would take time. Presumably if a system could maintain the preferred water levels within a range (rather than an emergency deluge) then the salinity would only fluctuate within controllable parameters and nesting sites and feeding sites could be managed.
Has the volume of water in each of the flashes ever been estimated?
Paul
Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
Thanks Phil, I'd guessed it wouldn't be easy.
Presumably if a system could maintain the preferred water levels within a range (rather than an emergency deluge) then the salinity would only fluctuate within controllable parameters and nesting sites and feeding sites could be managed.
Has the volume of water in each of the flashes ever been estimated?
Paul
We do currently control the level of the water at the Flashes through a sluice by the feeding station. Unfortunately this can only let water out. This sluice has previously been tampered with on occasions and water let off when the levels should have been maintained; the Trust were looking to install a locking mechanism to prevent such unauthorised manipulation in the future. David (Woodchat) is currently undertaking regular testing of the salinity so we can monitor the differential between the different bodies of water, the variation over the seasons and any trends over a period of time.
