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

Upton Warren (24 Viewers)

At the half way point of May the monthly list current stands on 94 species, less than we managed in just 24 hours in last year's Spring All-Dayer!! Luckily we have already passed the lowest May total (94 in 2015) but it seems like hard work to get to the average return of 104.2 species. However there is still the promise of something tasty (possibly requiring a change in weather and wind direction) as May has the second highest overall number of species record (182), only just behind September. Potential additions for the remainder of May include (year ticks in bold):

Teal, Garganey, Little Egret, Osprey, Marsh Harrier, Redshank, Ruff, Greenshank, Sanderling, Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit, Temminck's Stint, Little Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Black Tern, Tawny Owl, Barn Owl, Little Owl, Cuckoo, Whinchat, Coal Tit, Yellowhammer

Whilst the wind it not favourable, today's murky conditions may be the best chance to connect with something new before the weather goes all sunny and clear again for the next few days.
 
Today's highlights:

FLASHES/SAILING POOL*
Dunlin (1)----------------------Oystercatcher (2)
Lapwing (5)--------------------LRP (5) + a brood of 3 chicks.
Avocet (29) + 2:2 chicks------Shelduck (2)
Gadwall (3)---------------------Shoveler (1)
Common Gull (1s)-------------Redstart. Singing from the top of the barn early morning, but not this evening.
Cetti's Warbler (1) in the Hen Pool area.
G C Grebe (2)*-----------------Tufted Duck (10)*
Greylag Goose*

MOORS/RIVER SALWARPE*
Avocet (1)----------------------Oystercatcher (4) + 2 chicks
Lapwing (2)--------------------Gadwall (4)
Shelduck (6)-------------------Shoveler (2)
Tufted Duck (46)---------------Little Grebe (6)
Mute Swan (3)-----------------Mistle Thrush (2) + a min of 1 juv.
Kingfisher*---------------------Willow Warbler along the east track.
Cetti's Warbler-----------------Swift (c40)

NORTH MOORS:
Shoveler (pr)-------------------Tufted Duck (7)
Mute Swan (2)

Des.
 

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Walking along the road from the Moors car park to the North Moors hide around 8pm, a Water Rail made me jump by alarm-calling very loudly from about 2ft away. Visible through the hedge was a second bird with two chicks.

A single Common Tern at the Moors.
Swifts, Swallows and House Martins feeding over the woods next to the West hide.

Badger on the track down to the West Hide from the car park around 8.45pm
 
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Walking along the road from the Moors car park to the North Moors hide around 8pm, a Water Rail made me jump by alarm-calling very loudly from about 2ft away. Visible through the hedge was a second bird with two chicks.

A single Common Tern at the Moors.
Swifts, Swallows and House Martins feeding over the woods next to the West hide.

Badger on the track down to the West Hide from the car park around 8.45pm

Good news Rob - were the young on the North Moors side or the Moors Pool side of the causeway?
 
Walking along the road from the Moors car park to the North Moors hide around 8pm, a Water Rail made me jump by alarm-calling very loudly from about 2ft away. Visible through the hedge was a second bird with two chicks.

A single Common Tern at the Moors.
Swifts, Swallows and House Martins feeding over the woods next to the West hide.

Badger on the track down to the West Hide from the car park around 8.45pm

Rob were they small black chicks with white bills or more advanced :t:
 
Today's highlights:

FLASHES/SAILING POOL*
Dunlin (1)----------------------Oystercatcher (2)
Lapwing (5)--------------------LRP (5) + a brood of 3 chicks.
Avocet (29) + 2:2 chicks------Shelduck (2)
Gadwall (3)---------------------Shoveler (1)
Common Gull (1s)-------------Redstart. Singing from the top of the barn early morning, but not this evening.
Cetti's Warbler (1) in the Hen Pool area.
G C Grebe (2)*-----------------Tufted Duck (10)*
Greylag Goose*

MOORS/RIVER SALWARPE*
Avocet (1)----------------------Oystercatcher (4) + 2 chicks
Lapwing (2)--------------------Gadwall (4)
Shelduck (6)-------------------Shoveler (2)
Tufted Duck (46)---------------Little Grebe (6)
Mute Swan (3)-----------------Mistle Thrush (2) + a min of 1 juv.
Kingfisher*---------------------Willow Warbler along the east track.
Cetti's Warbler-----------------Swift (c40)

NORTH MOORS:
Shoveler (pr)-------------------Tufted Duck (7)
Mute Swan (2)

Des.

A couple of other pieces of information from yesterday. A Black Headed Gull with a white ring on its left leg, 28D1, was present at the Moors early afternoon. This bird has been noted before on the reserve.

There was a minimum of 100 Black Headed Gull chicks at the Flashes yesterday evening.

Des.
 
A couple of other pieces of information from yesterday. A Black Headed Gull with a white ring on its left leg, 28D1, was present at the Moors early afternoon. This bird has been noted before on the reserve.

Des.

An old familiar friend who has been seen on the reserve for many a year but must be getting a bit long in the tooth now.

But getting back to the gull 8-P I will post it's updated history later
 
An old familiar friend who has been seen on the reserve for many a year but must be getting a bit long in the tooth now.

But getting back to the gull 8-P I will post it's updated history later

You can post my history as well Phil, it will make for more interesting reading!

Des.
 
Three LRP chicks still present, four Avocet chicks also. Interestingly the latter were split 3:1 under two different adults when I arrived. The single then, when the adult got up, went to the adult brooding the three and squeezed under to join them. Therefore do we have a brood of 4 or 2x2 or something else? Does anyone have any evidence of fostering between pairs of Avocets?
 
Early morning at the Flashes and Dave J reports:

39 Avocet plus one brood of 4 young (a mini influx compared to recent totals), Little Ringed Plover plus 3 young, Redstart, 2 Oystercatcher, 2 Shoveler, Shelduck, Gadwall
 
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Three LRP chicks still present, four Avocet chicks also. Interestingly the latter were split 3:1 under two different adults when I arrived. The single then, when the adult got up, went to the adult brooding the three and squeezed under to join them. Therefore do we have a brood of 4 or 2x2 or something else? Does anyone have any evidence of fostering between pairs of Avocets?
Yes Mike a couple of years ago I saw two broods feeding close to each other in the 'saucer. One of the brood was much smaller than the other. One of the smaller chicks kept drifting into the the larger chicks feeding territory and was initially attcked by the neighbouring adults. However the chick persisted in feeding with the larger brood. Eventually it was accepted by the neighbours and regularly brooded (fostered). Then a couple of hours later it returned it's biological parents. :eek!::eek!:
 
Early morning at the Flashes JTB reports:

35 Avocet with 2 broods (3 young and the other yet to emerge from under the parent), 6 Little Ringed Plover plus 3 young, 2 Oystercatcher, 7 Lapwing, 8 Shelduck, male Redstart singing again on the old barn

Also 5 Greylag Geese young still at the Sailing Pool
 
A couple of other pieces of information from yesterday. A Black Headed Gull with a white ring on its left leg, 28D1, was present at the Moors early afternoon. This bird has been noted before on the reserve.

Des.

An adult with white “28D1”, ringed in the nest at Hosehill Lakes, Berkshire on the 4th June 2011 and noted annually at Upton Warren since 2013.

The first sighting at the reserve was on the 5th May 2013 with the bird recorded the following year at the Flashes on the 9th and 28th March. In 2015 it was observed at the Moors Pool on the 24th June and at the Flashes on the following day. In 2016 it was seen at the Flashes on the 5th March and again on the 17th April whilst last year it was at Flashes on the 17th June before being recorded this year at the Moors Pool on the 16th May.

Other than its nest site later in 2011 and this reserve I understand the bird has only been noted in one other location, the River Lee in Cork on the 1st January 2012, although I will ask the ringing project coordinator for an updated history.
 

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