• 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.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Upton Warren (18 Viewers)

Now that would be interesting!

Just had an email reply stating that it is not thought to be from a Dutch or French scheme due to the bird only having one tag.

Apparently a Spanish scheme may only use one tag and further info on this is being sought.

I suppose it's possible that a tag on the bird's right wing has become detached but even if that's the case, hopefully the tag it does have will be enough to track down its origins.

Brian


I've had a response from Belgium that I will look at more closely when I get home but think its another dead-end
 
Response from the Low Countries was a follows:

"Thanks a lot for sending me these nice pictures, but (unfortunately) this is not one of our birds. And none of the one in France because they always use two wingtags/bird, one on each wing. I will try to find out where the bird comes from, maybe from some spanish program? I remember seing somewhere on a website a scheme where they only used one wing, try to find this.
Anyway, many thanks again for letting me know, we are waiting now for 3CY birds which we wingtagged as juveniles in 2011 to come back to the breeding sites!

Good luch with your projects,
All the best,
Anny"

I had a follow-up message from Anny which further stated:

"Here I give a link with a overview of the wingtag and cr projects on Marsh Harrier which have been made public on this website. I did not find any match with the bird you have seen [which I had already established].

This could be a small local project which has not been comunicated to the website.

All the best
Anny"
 
Last edited:
Today was a flying visit arrived around 7.25 and went straight to the Moors Pools, was quite surprised to see very little snow around as I left my house with quite a lot still around .

I arrived at the east hide to find Alan H already there so I decided to do an early count (results later) not too much around then at 8.20 all the bird went up first of all I thought the Buzzard I saw earlier must be around then from the left of the hide came a beautiful looking bird and yes it was the Marshie it flew around for a few seconds before making its way across the pool to the North Moors where it appeared to go to ground not too sure if it was in the North Moors or just past the North moors but I didn’t see it again.

A small area of the pool was frozen mostly towards Amy’s Marsh just off the edge of the frozen water and in between snipe island we had 3 snipe and 2 others spotted around after a short while these flew towards the reed bed directly in front of the hide so after a while I took a good look into the reeds as best as I could and their appeared to be at least 10 common snipe with a very high possibility of many more.

By the time I was ready to go to the flashes the wind chill had started to bite so I decided to stay a short while just to get the counts and see what was around, not a lot but was surprised to see only 1 Avocet (anyone any idea’s what’s going on at the flashes no lapwings and now only 1 avocet) a little ringed plover was a very nice sight and was moving freely between the islands.

TODAYS COUNTS & SIGHTINGS -

MOORS POOLS –

Moorhen (9), mallard (14), blackbird, aylesdale, duck blue tit, long tailed tit, reed bunting, dunnock, chaffinch, great tit, wood pigeon, magpie, Canada goose (17), collared dove, robin, coot (48), black headed gull (180+), teal (14), wigeon (8), lesser black backed gull (12), herring gull (1), tufted duck (35), gadwall (6), MARSH HARRIER (1), shoveler (14), great crested grebe (3), Mistle thrush, cormorant (9), water rail, stock dove (5), Buzzard (2), pied wagtail, oystercatcher (2), Shelduck (2), jackdaw, redpoll & mute swan (2)

SAILING POOL –

Tuft duck (2), mallard (7), Canada goose (16), great crested grebe (9), black headed gull (4) & cormorant (2)

FLASHES POOLS –

Black headed gull (78), robin, Canada goose (19), little ringed plover, magpie, avocet (1 only),coot (14), curlew (7), buzzard, magpie, oystercatcher (2), wood pigeon, jackdaw, teal (12), greylag goose (2), pied wagtail, kestrel, stock dove, raven, moorhen (8), reed bunting, bullfinch, blackbird, wren, chaffinch, great tit, greenfinch, carrion crow, redwing & song thrush
 
Moors Pool

Were the 8 Wigeon a fly-through or did they linger?

The Wigeon came in about 7.15am then stayed in a tight group towards the the concrete hide for about 2.5 hours. Then took flight and were circling pool fo about utes before disappearing.

In addition to earlier count there were 4 or 5 Gadwall.
 

Attachments

  • 7D_008767.jpg
    7D_008767.jpg
    275 KB · Views: 115
  • 7D_008769.jpg
    7D_008769.jpg
    305.4 KB · Views: 104
  • 7D_008771.jpg
    7D_008771.jpg
    316.1 KB · Views: 135
Last edited:
no raptors seen when they arrived john a nice chap called Brian spotted them coming in from a great height so i`m guessing they are passage birds but who knows.
 
Bird Recording at Upton Warren

As described by John last week, records of bird sightings from Upton Warren are the life blood of the reserve. Not only do they raise the profile (and therefore income) of the reserve but they provide a valuable statistical background that enables us to identify and then monitor trends in population / breeding activity / feeding patterns / migration behaviour and then manage the habitat accordingly. They also provide a wealth of hard, indisputable facts when engaging with the Trust regarding future management proposals and also in the Trust’s engagement with other bodies / funding agencies.

As part of your sightings for Upton Warren you may be lucky enough to discover a rare bird for the reserve. The log books in the hides have a number of contact numbers of key individuals who can start the local grapevine moving, including posting information on this forum.

Once a rare bird has been shared with regulars and visitors alike, there is the small matter of submitting a description and/or supporting information to the revelant body to ensure that the sighting is verified and accepted to form part of the reserve's (and county's / country's) ornithological history. The very rarest birds on a national basis are considered by the British Birds Rarities Committee, a panel comprising of a number of County Recorders. There are six species currently considered by the BBRC which have occurred at Upton Warren:

Blue-winged Teal, Black-winged Stilt, Least Sandpiper, Wilson’s Phalarope, Laughing Gull, Caspian Tern

A link to the BBRC's submission page is attached here: http://www.bbrc.org.uk/submit-a-sighting. The occurrence of any of the species considered by the BBRC at Upton Warren would be a major event and I am sure any of the regulars such as myself, John, Mike, Dave, Des etc would be happy to assist an observer in pulling together a submission if required.

The next tranche of species require a description to be submitted to the County Recorder (details below) as they are considered rare birds for Worcestershire. This is not the full list of submission species for Worcestershire but I have selected those most likely to be recorded at Upton Warren; those in bold have yet to have an accepted record from the reserve:

Whooper Swan, Bean Goose, White-fronted Goose, Brent Goose, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Eider, Ring-necked Duck, Ferruginous Duck, Long-tailed Duck, Velvet Scoter, Surf Scoter, Smew, Red-breasted Merganser, Quail, Great Northern Diver, Red-throated Diver, Black-throated Diver, Fulmar, Manx Shearwater, Storm Petrel, Leach’s Petrel, Gannet, Shag, Bittern, Night Heron, Cattle Egret, Great White Egret, Spoonbill, Purple Heron, White Stork, Red-necked Grebe, Slavonian Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, Honey Buzzard, Black Kite, Marsh Harrier, Hen Harrier, Montagu’s Harrier, Goshawk, Rough-legged Buzzard, Osprey, Red-footed Falcon, Spotted Crake, Corncrake, Crane, Avocet, Stone Curlew, Kentish Plover, Dotterel, Temminck’s Stint, White-rumped Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Purple Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Wood Sandpiper, Red-necked Phalarope, Grey Phalarope, Pomarine Skua, Great Skua, Arctic Skua, Long-tailed Skua, Ring-billed Gull, Sabine's Gull, Caspian Gull, Iceland Gull, Glaucous Gull, Little Tern, White-winged Black Tern, Sandwich Tern, Roseate Tern, Ring-necked Parakeet, Long-eared Owl, Nightjar, Alpine Swift, Bee-eater, Hoopoe, Wryneck, Golden Oriole, Red-backed Shrike, Great Grey Shrike, Firecrest, Willow Tit, Bearded Tit, Woodlark, Shorelark, Red-rumped Swallow, Yellow-browed Warbler, Savi’s Warbler, Aquatic Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Waxwing, Rose-coloured Starling, Bluethroat, Black Redstart, Richard’s Pipit, Water Pipit, Serin, Twite, Mealy Redpoll, Arctic Redpoll, Common Rosefinch, Cirl Bunting, Snow Bunting, Lapland Bunting, Rustic Bunting, Little Bunting

Attached below are the contact details of the County Recorder:

<[email protected]>
6 Norbury Close, Redditch, Worcs B98 8RP
01527 60169

The County Recorder is assisted by a Rarities Panel of experienced local birders in assesing records that are submitted; at present I dont link any members of this panel who are regular visitors to Upton Warren but I stand to be corrected. A link to a guide produced by the West Midland Bird Club to assist in the writing and submission of descriptions is attached below; again I am sure thar regulars would assist those less familar in writing such descriptions:

http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/records/guidelines

Please note that any submission species reported at Upton Warren but then not subsequently submitted to and accepted by the County Recorder will not form part of Upton's orniothological history. The annual report now includes an appendix which details the "fate" of those submission species reported from the previous year or two (depending on the time-lag in processing submissions).

Finally, there are a number of birds that, whilst not considered rare in Worcestershire as a whole, are rare in a local context at Upton Warren. In has therefore been decided to form a low-key Upton Warren Rarities Committee to consider these sightings. It will comprise of myself as the annual report writer, Mike Wakeman and Des Jennings as the report's editors, and Dave Walker and John Belsey as experienced birders. The aim is to provide a "light touch" review of this type of bird. UWRC will consider the following species; the basis being 10 records or less in the last 15 years:

Bewick's Swan, Pink-footed Goose, Egyptian Goose, Red-crested Pochard, Scaup, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Partridge, Grey Plover, Knot, Turtle Dove, Short-eared Owl, Dipper, Ring Ouzel, Nightingale, Wood Warbler, Pied Flycatcher, Marsh Tit, Hawfinch, Corn Bunting

As with county recording this list will change in time as the frequency of the stated species varies. Please dont feel offended if you are requested to produce a couple of lines of supporting information should you be lucky enough to spot of the the above (ideally in the log books at the time of the sighting if possible, together with a name and contact details). As with the previous two categories, the availability of photographs greatly assists in the processing and verification of such reports.

Happy birding (and rarity finding!) :t:
 
Last edited:
The Wigeon came in about 7.15am then stayed in a tight group towards the the concrete hide for about 2.5 hours. Then took flight and were circling pool fo about utes before disappearing.

In addition to earlier count there were 4 or 5 Gadwall.

WOW the last 2 pics are awesome.......not too blind then...

Keith :t:
 
How many utes did they circle for Alan? 8-P

Phil,

These birds were also seen at the Flashes later on (about 9.15). They circled for five minutes or so as if they were about to come down but didn't. We noted that one had a lot of white on the wing as can be seen in Alan's picture.

Peter
 
Phil,

These birds were also seen at the Flashes later on (about 9.15). They circled for five minutes or so as if they were about to come down but didn't. We noted that one had a lot of white on the wing as can be seen in Alan's picture.

Peter

That had my heart racing for a second or so Peter - thought you meant white UNDER the wing ie American Wigeon!!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top