Upton Warren (25 Viewers)

[forgetfulelephant]

Cheers John - will be interesting to see how the ER reed-bed will responding to any works; as has previously been commented (by Des?) it has looked very dry in recent years.

This morning's sightings were as follows (I will assume that Sy's wader counting skills were hampered by the mist):

SAILING POOL
11 GC Grebe, 1 Coot, 1 Mute Swan, 2 Little Grebe

FLASHES
11 Avocet, 4 LRP, 2 Oyks, 9 Coot, 5 Moorhen, 7 Lapwing, 14 Teal, 2 LBB Gull, c50 BH Gull

MOORS POOL
2 Shelduck, 6 Gadwall, 12 Shoveler, 2 Teal, 33 Tufted Duck, 4 Oyks, 1 Little Grebe, 3 GC Grebe, 4 Cormorant, 2 Mute Swan, 1 Grey Heron, 5 Moorhen, 27 Coot, 2 LBB Gull, c350 BH Gull, Raven over

As stated earlier, there were at least 6 (more likely 7) Chiffchaffs singing this morning and that was without venturing into the Education Reserve. Nice to hear the singing "properly" and not the Cetti's style song of thei Canary Island counterparts (now split as a full species).

To add to the count on the Moors: 2 G Heron, Green Woodpecker (3 fly-bys) , Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, 2 Lapwing, Chiff Chaff singing in hedge to left of East hide, Kingfisher (2 fly-bys) 1 Curlew, 2 Snipe.

Rob

 

[Phil Andrews]

Avocet flucuations

As has been commented already, the numbers of Avocets have varied dramatically during this month. I have attached below a chart of the peak daily counts in March which shows no clear pattern.

What is interesting is that in the same period there have been very few birds reported in say a 50 mile radius so all the displaced birds must be moving some distances. Other records (noting that some sites may be surpressing what is still such a notable record inland) include:-

Middleton Lakes, Warwicks - 1 on 1st
Branston GPs, Staffs - 2 on 23rd, 22nd and 19th
Sandwell Valley, West Mids - 1 on 12th
Drayton Basset, Staffs - 2 on 8th
Saul Wharf, Gloucs - 3 on 17th, 12 on 3rd
Slimbridge, Gloucs - 2 on 25th

Of course by now there may be up to 54 Avocets with an affinity to Upton having been raised there so if all these birds are still alive and pair up before they move from their wintering grounds then potentially over 100 birds could move through the reserve on Spring passage.

 

[upstarts1979]

As has been commented already, the numbers of Avocets have varied dramatically during this month. I have attached below a chart of the peak daily counts in March which shows no clear pattern.

What is interesting is that in the same period there have been very few birds reported in say a 50 mile radius so all the displaced birds must be moving some distances. Other records (noting that some sites may be surpressing what is still such a notable record inland) include:-

Middleton Lakes, Warwicks - 1 on 1st
Branston GPs, Staffs - 2 on 23rd, 22nd and 19th
Sandwell Valley, West Mids - 1 on 12th
Drayton Basset, Staffs - 2 on 8th
Saul Wharf, Gloucs - 3 on 17th, 12 on 3rd
Slimbridge, Gloucs - 2 on 25th

Of course by now there may be up to 54 Avocets with an affinity to Upton having been raised there so if all these birds are still alive and pair up before they move from their wintering grounds then potentially over 100 birds could move through the reserve on Spring passage.

Nice one Phil. Yesterday I checked on last years counts in March..I was going to do a comparative graph for 2011 and 2012. Here is the data for 2011 can you do the graph mate :t:
MARCH :1st -1, 2nd - 3 till 6th, 7th - 2 till 11th, 12th - 4, 13th - 8, 14th -6 till 15th, 16th - 9 till 17th, 18th - 8, 19th 9 till 20th, 21st - 13, 22nd - 15, 23rd - 14, 24th - 13, 25th 15 till 27th, 28th - 16, 29th - 13.

 

[UW82]

Hi Mike - just caught up with the above post; I had better things to do on my honeymoon (like finding megas for Spain :-O).

This would be the joint third earliest Wheatear in Upton's recorded history. HOWEVER, there is a record of a male in the West Hide log-book at the Moors Pool for the previous day (16th) which would be joint second earliest record.

The Flashes log-book has a record of a Willow Warbler near the steps down friom the Sailing Pool on the 11th; anyone know anything more?[/QUOTE


Hi Phil. What were the megas you found for Spain?

Des.

 

[PeterE]

I had a very enjoyable visit to both the Moors and the Flashes around midday; as noted there was a wide variety of birds, avocets mating and pleasant company. For me the most remarkable sight - apart from Phil's tan - was the close-up view of the LPRs in the channel directly below the new hide. I was puzzled by their foot movements as they fed: they tapped their front foot (they appear to be ambipedal) as they moved forward. Does anyone know if this is a feeding tactic? Does it stir up their prey?

Peter

 

[upstarts1979]

I had a very enjoyable visit to both the Moors and the Flashes around midday; as noted there was a wide variety of birds, avocets mating and pleasant company. For me the most remarkable sight - apart from Phil's tan - was the close-up view of the LPRs in the channel directly below the new hide. I was puzzled by their foot movements as they fed: they tapped their front foot (they appear to be ambipedal) as they moved forward. Does anyone know if this is a feeding tactic? Does it stir up their prey?

Peter

Hi Peter
a lot of the charadriidae family, (plovers/lapwing types) do this. As they all have short bills they cannot probe too deeply, thus this method would seem to be widely used by this family. It entices food to the surface for them to pick off. I have seen lapwings do it on quite dry ground - this could bring insects out of the grass in front of them as well as out of the ground. Lapwings also put their ear close to the ground and combined with this foot tapping, it seems to be an effective method of catching food. LRP do it more in damp or muddy ground, BHG also use this method when feeding on mud or looking for worms on grass.
B John

 

[Phil Andrews]

Hi Phil. What were the megas you found for Spain?

Des.

Squacco Heron is a rarity but the below was a 6th record for Spain (and therefore a mega in my book); can you tell from the fantastic photo?

 

[UW82]

Squacco Heron is a rarity but the below was a 6th record for Spain (and therefore a mega in my book); can you tell from the fantastic photo?

No chance Phil. We are not used to that standard of photography on this forum.

Des.

 

[forgetfulelephant]

I had a very enjoyable visit to both the Moors and the Flashes around midday; as noted there was a wide variety of birds, avocets mating and pleasant company. For me the most remarkable sight - apart from Phil's tan - was the close-up view of the LPRs in the channel directly below the new hide. I was puzzled by their foot movements as they fed: they tapped their front foot (they appear to be ambipedal) as they moved forward. Does anyone know if this is a feeding tactic? Does it stir up their prey?

Peter

I've noticed Snipe doing similar.

Rob

 

[Phil Andrews]

No chance Phil. We are not used to that standard of photography on this forum.

Des.

Sorry Des - I hang my head in shame :-C African Desert Warbler is the answer.

 

[PeterE]

Hi Peter
a lot of the charadriidae family, (plovers/lapwing types) do this. As they all have short bills they cannot probe too deeply, thus this method would seem to be widely used by this family. It entices food to the surface for them to pick off. I have seen lapwings do it on quite dry ground - this could bring insects out of the grass in front of them as well as out of the ground. Lapwings also put their ear close to the ground and combined with this foot tapping, it seems to be an effective method of catching food. LRP do it more in damp or muddy ground, BHG also use this method when feeding on mud or looking for worms on grass.
B John

Hi John,

Thanks. That's brilliant. I'll be on the lookout for it now.

Peter

 

[upstarts1979]

Phil

That's almost exactly the same time of the increases yesterday, as Brian will testify by my numerous amended texts! So it looks like they are roosting elsewhere.
Here's an Excel-generated bar chart of the month's Wind Speed (showing the highest hourly average speed count per day).
Next one is a Temperature chart since we got going (remember that today's temperature is the highest hourly reading after midnight and I took the data at about 07:30 this morning).

How about wind direction or have I missed summet

 

[cooky1]

A few photo`s from a short spell at the Flashes yesterday.:-C
Cant quite make out what the Avo has in its beak.
Lapwings always look good in the sunshine.:t:
Room for improvement with the LRP`S.
Everything except the LRP`S went up when the Sprawk drifted over.B

Chris

 

[Sy V]

Thanks Rob. Chris, those images are great (I have a number with other items in the Avocet's mouths, but none as large [the item] as that). We're really seeing some excellent imagery this year.
The thread continues to go from strength to strength... B Cheers everyone!

 

[Sy V]

How about wind direction or have I missed summet

You're a hard task master, John.
Two (main) reasons for the omission.
1. I'm self teaching myself - not a great user of Excel and I can't imagine how to chart data with date Vs. direction, when 'direction' isn't numerical data. Don't get me wrong, I have the data with wind direction, but I can't imagine how to show it graphically. Pie chart? Nah, that doesn't work for me.
2. I'm doing this in... 'sensitive' time, if you get my drift.

 

[forgetfulelephant]

Some recent images from The Moors & Flashes.

Rob

 

[upstarts1979]

A few pics from Sunday in front of 1st Flash hide

1. swimming Avos in front of 1st Flash hide.
2. Avocet with worm type food item
3. close up of worm
4. Teal

 

[UW82]

Sorry Des - I hang my head in shame :-C African Desert Warbler is the answer.

A great find.

Des.

 

[Phil Andrews]

Breeding season 2012

He is an egg collector that has an ASBO not to enter any wildlife trust or RSPB reserve, he is also banned from Scotland during the breeding season.
His name is Matthew Gonshaw
amongst other species he specialises in Avocets

With the breeding season fast approaching it is essential that this thread (and others similar to it representing sites across the country) dont become a valuable source of information to toe-rags such as Gonshaw and his like.

Please therefore, however well-intended or informative, refrain from including any details in your postings of birds mating or nesting, or indeed alluding to breeding activity. If you have any particular information about what might be breeding or when birds started sitting could you please PM myself or John so we can consider what action needs to be taken (if any).

As with previous years we will (under licence) continue to cage certain species' nests to protect them from the dual threat of predation (Coot, Moorhen, gulls, herons) and clumsiness (geese). This has had a notable impact on the number of clutches then go on to hatch; unfortunately there is little we can do once they have left the safety of the shell other than provide a range of suitable habitats for young birds to feed to boost their chances of survival. The actually caging process is now down to a fine art and the actual disturbance is limited to no more thatn 2 minutes, with sitting birds returning very quickly to the nest.

I would also ask our ever expanding and cooperative photography community to assist us in not posting anything that features photos of birds mating or on the nest (Gert / Mark P - can this message to extended to the Flickr page please?).

Thanks
Phil

 

[Sy V]

How about wind direction or have I missed summet

Further to my reply last night, John.
I'm wondering if I could substitute the compass points for numbers in Excel (N=1, NNE=2, NE=3, ENE=4, E=5 etc) and then change the axes back to compass points on the graphs...
Are you looking to see how often wind is from a certain direction or when it was from a certain direction (remembering that you get 24 datum points (records) every day (504 datum points to date)?
When is the resident scientist back, he might have an answer?
To see what we're up against, please see the attached Excel spreadsheet for the 22 days that the weather station has been recording...