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

Upton Warren (14 Viewers)

At Upton this afternoon from West hide on Moors numerous sightings of Water Rail around feeding station on the ice. Also 2 weasels active around feeding station brought the rails out getting excited even a Cetti's was following/mobbing them it was rung with blue right and white over red left. Weasel caught a small rat although one of the photographers said it was a rabbit! Yes if rabbits have long tails
 
An hour at the moors tonight,
highlight being 3 COMMON GULL (1 AD, 2 2nd win) perched on ice for about 20 mins before being flushed and flew off south towards westwood, a sparrowhawk on the concree hide, showing very well. 4+ water rail potterig about infront of the hide, 80-80% of the pool was frozen so the lack of ducks was obvious, only 31 teal and smaller numbers of shoveler, pochard and tuftie.
it felt good gettin back onto upton soil again after almost a month away.........
MB
 
An hour at the moors tonight,
highlight being 3 COMMON GULL (1 AD, 2 2nd win) perched on ice for about 20 mins before being flushed and flew off south towards westwood, a sparrowhawk on the concree hide, showing very well. 4+ water rail potterig about infront of the hide, 80-80% of the pool was frozen so the lack of ducks was obvious, only 31 teal and smaller numbers of shoveler, pochard and tuftie.
it felt good gettin back onto upton soil again after almost a month away.........
MB
Have I been asleep for two days and its Saturday already craig 8-P

you only go on Saturdays:-O
 
Between 26 and 28 April (incl) this year we recorded sightings of:
Gropper
2 Hobbies
Med Gull
5 Ring Plovers
2 Dunlin

Now, I don't know whether this has been drawn to everyone's attention yet (and those of you who own firms or are self-employed won't thank me for this either) but, given that next year we will have Good Friday on 22 April, Easter Monday on 25 April, Royal Wedding on 29 April and Mayday Bank Holiday on 2 May, if you were to book 26-28 April (incl) off you'll get 11 consecutive days of birding for the cost of only 3 days holiday. Booked mine yesterday!

Never mind an all-dayer, we could do an all-weeker!

Sod that I'm having the year off8-P
 
..... even a Cetti's was following/mobbing them it was rung with blue right and white over red left...

Hi John / Sy - next time you speak to Ferg can you follow up Trevor's sighting of the colour ringed Cetti's to see if we can get any data on it.

Cheers
Phil
 
UW this morning

Walked the full reserve this morning from daybreak. The snow overnight made it very picturesque but needles to say nothing much about at the Flashes - about 60 Lapwing on the ice. A Mistle Thrush was singing and a Sparrowhawk passed through into a cloud of Redwing and Blackbirds. 2 Linnet flew over.
On the Moors there was a bit more water with a few Shovler, Pochard, Tufted Duck and Teal present. A Buzzard was over and interestingly a female Blackcap on the spindle bush on the causeway. A couple of Redpoll and lots of Goldfinch as well as more Redwings with Fieldfare present.

Cheers

Gert
 
Have I been asleep for two days and its Saturday already craig 8-P

you only go on Saturdays:-O


well i break up from school at 12:45 on fridays, and my dad has recently had some spare time on fridays ansd mondays so i intend to use them;):smoke:

oh and has anyone noticed a female pochard with a LT duck type face pattern on the moors, it was there y'day???
MB
 
Brass monkeys!

Started this morning at Moors Pool which was around 90% frozen. The main highlight was 2 Bitterns which showed well on and off in the reedbed on the north shore. All the ducks were crammed into the small unfrozen area; encouraging to see 23 Shoveler, including the circling feeding flock behaviour which has been largely absent this autumn. Also present were 9 Tufted Duck, 15 Pochard, 243 Coot and 8 Teal. A Green Sandpiper stood somewhat forlonly at the edge of the ice whilst 1 Snipe flew over. There were also 4 Grey Heron, 3 Cormorant, 14 Moorhen (many at the feeding station), 1 GC Grebe and 8 Mute Swans. A flock of 25 Greylag Geese were noted in flight over the Sailing Pool. The Flashes was very quiet with a further 2 Grey Herons; Dave had a fly-over Dunlin earlier.

There was a notable movement of LBB Gulls northwards throughout the morning with a few accompanying Herring Gulls. There were good numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare although not in one major flock; birds were distributed right across the reserve.
 
Greylag Geese

Today's sighting of 25 by myself and Dave in flight over the Sailing Pool (viewed from the East Hide at the Moors Pool) was a reserve record.

Worth keeping an eye on to see (a) if the flock grows any further or (b) they are joined by any of the scarcer "grey" geese.
 
oh and has anyone noticed a female pochard with a LT duck type face pattern on the moors, it was there y'day." MB quote

Yes Craig I saw this duck it also had acrown stripe as well as bilateral white ear covert patches which did remind me of LT Duck
 
Started this morning at Moors Pool which was around 90% frozen. The main highlight was 2 Bitterns which showed well on and off in the reedbed on the north shore. All the ducks were crammed into the small unfrozen area; encouraging to see 23 Shoveler, including the circling feeding flock behaviour which has been largely absent this autumn. Also present were 9 Tufted Duck, 15 Pochard, 243 Coot and 8 Teal. A Green Sandpiper stood somewhat forlonly at the edge of the ice whilst 1 Snipe flew over. There were also 4 Grey Heron, 3 Cormorant, 14 Moorhen (many at the feeding station), 1 GC Grebe and 8 Mute Swans. A flock of 25 Greylag Geese were noted in flight over the Sailing Pool. The Flashes was very quiet with a further 2 Grey Herons; Dave had a fly-over Dunlin earlier.

There was a notable movement of LBB Gulls northwards throughout the morning with a few accompanying Herring Gulls. There were good numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare although not in one major flock; birds were distributed right across the reserve.

Just to add to your totals Phil :- 285 Coot, 17 Pochard and 10 Tufted. At least 3 water rail in front of east hide. A bird also came out of the seasonal pool with obvious drooping wings as if it was injured. At the back of the blue building on the A38 at least 500 wood pigeons came out of the small copse.
B :)John
a view of the Moors from the east hide this afternoon ( interesting how the water stays open in front of the hide)
 

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Another freezing day -6 when I left the Moors at 4.45pm.
There is a misconception that the Flashes lagoons stay open because of the salinity but if only it was true. Only a handful of lapwing were on the ice with another 50 or so on adjacent fields. 5 curlews roosted in the sewage field. Redwings fed in the hedgerows and several more (20) were around the feeding station.
At the Moors the ice free pool from yesterday had contracted a little today but still held reasonable numbers of waterfowl. Including GCG, Shoveler 20, Teal 18, Pochard 12, Tufted 8. 24 Greylag came into roost at 4.30pm. At dark mallard dropped in continuously with 200 or more roosting.
In front of the east hide a snipe fed until it was chased by a water rail it then flew to the east island where a curlew also roosted. Unfortunately within a few minutes of landing the snipe became sparrowhawk fodder. :-C . A large northerly movement of 300 or more gulls circled without landing amongst them were 20+ Herrings the rest were mostly BHG's.
Other species of note were Lapwing 50, coot 250+, and a small roost of reed bunting along the east side.
B :)John
 

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