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

Upton Warren (54 Viewers)

First summer Med Gull in the first set of photos (looks like the bird that's been a regular feature over the last 3+ weeks); BHG in the second set unfortunately.
 
And Finally

SWEET!

Back on the Moors in the afternoon at the last count I found 61 LBBGs at least and 6 Herring Gulls at least in the northern end waters.


One sedge warbler behaved like a kingfisher and sat for ages on one stick by The Hook. Superb.

On balance a good day.

Phil E
 

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Meds.

Phil Andrews said:
First summer Med Gull in the first set of photos (looks like the bird that's been a regular feature over the last 3+ weeks); BHG in the second set unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Thanks Phil Confirms what I thought in both cases.:t:

Looks as though I will have to peruse the Flash gulls on my own.

Phil E
 
The combined sightings of Mike W, Andy A and Andy P from yesterday:

MOORS POOL
Still 4 Oystercatcher chicks (2:2), 2 Common Tern, Cuckoo, ringed Black-headed Gull 24H0 again - now the proud parent of 3 young

FLASHES
Still all 3 Little Ringed Plover chicks, now just 1 Oystercatcher chick, Lapwing chicks reduced to 4 by the evening (6 noted in the morning), Avocet young increased further to 37 from 13 broods, 1 Dunlin, 1 Redshank, 2 Curlew in the roost, first summer Med Gull, 1 brood of 6 Shoveler young noted on the right hand side side of the second flash
 
Where Bird said:
It was early and any good pics of this bird I thought I took turned out to be rubbish. I really wanted to see this elusive bird. A polite request was met strangely with " where it usually is. " Okay there were more pressing young to find.

Eventually we got to where it was and the fact that it was sitting down with its head in its wings. Mmmmm!

Since this was the only bird on the muddy patch -and I wasn't looking at the wrong muddy patch- why am I not convinced that this is a med.

The inside of its mouth looks the right colour but the beak looks for all the world like that from a BHG. Of course both pics are further away than I would have liked and one was photobombed. The next one was useless.

Web Link for good Med Gull Site

https://www.birdguides.com/articles/species-profiles/focus-on-mediterranean-gulls/

One of those days I guess . Leaving the East hide at the Moors and paying a rare visit to the concrete hide I had just sat down when the cuckoo sounded repeatedly. ON THE EAST SIDE!!!!! NOT VISIBLE!!

If the cuckoo wanted to be seen by me it knew where I was. It didn't.:-C

Mind you at Slimbridge the other day I was pleased to hear one there- until I realised it was the guy next to me- his ring tone:-C

Phil E
Click to expand...

As far as I am aware the inside mouth colour is not a diagnostic feature for Meds.
Re 1st summer MED Gull compared to 2nd Summer
1st Summer has much more black in its primaries than 1st summer BHG . Compared to 2nd Summer Med which have alternate black and white primary tips the the rest of the wing is pale grey. 1st summer Med also has a black bar across its secondaies and black band on tail
B :) john
 
Family party with 4 young Water Rail at the Moors Pool yesterday, crossed the causeway from the main pool to the North Moors as per Phil W.

Cuckoo again yesterday at the Moors as per Andy P; 2 - possibly 3 - birds at the Moors Pool on Thursday as per Andy A.
 
From the Flashes this morning Andy P reports:

Cuckoo calling then flew towards the Cuckoo hide.

Youngster audit: Avocet 35 at least, Lapwing 4 (3:1), Oystercatcher 1, Little Ringed Plover now just 1, 2 Shoveler broods - 5 chicks visible in the south-east corner of the second flash and 8 on the first flash by the Cuckoo Hide.
 
Last edited:
Really sad to see the fly tipping in the carpark today. If you need a donation to help with the clearance. Please let me know. :(
 
Chicks everywhere - and a thank you.

Pleasant day on the reserve yesterday. Moores fairly quiet but watching two terns checking out the roofed raft and wondering why they couldn't land was comical. Roll on next Tuesday. In contrast Flashes manic. Very difficult to do a meaningful count although obvious that it is the best year for Avocet chicks for a while. Sadly noted one Avo chick with a serious leg injury and unable to walk to even stand.
Nice to see one or two visitors not seen {by me anyway} for a while. Notably Mike and Yvonne who passed on a donation to the seed fund to me - so a big thanks for that.
 
Today's work party Moors

On Tuesday morning we will be launching the tern rafts and removing the mesh cover from the Large raft that is out on the water.
A pair of terns are already on site and hopefully more will follow meet at car park 8.45
B :)john
Julie has made Cake :t:
John
 
Grpup meeting Wednesday 29th May

This will take place from 10 am ..Kimbo.will have more details.
:t:john
I think.the group is the Royal Photographic society
 
From the Flashes this morning Dave J reports:

44 Avocet + 37 young in 12 broods (working anti-clockwise from channel left of hide - 4:4:3:4:2:1:4:4:3:3:3:2), 2 Oystercatcher + 1 young still, 13+ Lapwing + 4 chicks (3:1), 4 Little Ringed Plover + 1 young, 3 Shoveler + 2 broods with 15 young (10:5), 6 Shelduck, Whitethroat.
 
RPS Group Visit - 29 May

As JB has headed up, a 15 strong group from the RPS will be on the reserve on this coming Wednesday 29th. I will be "guiding" the group around the reserve and have suggested measures to the group to minimise the disturbance to the regulars. I believe the group will be there from about 10.00am for most of the day.
 
Phil Andrews said:
From the Flashes this morning Dave J reports:

44 Avocet + 37 young in 12 broods (working anti-clockwise from channel left of hide - 4:4:3:4:2:1:4:4:3:3:3:2), 2 Oystercatcher + 1 young still, 13+ Lapwing + 4 chicks (3:1), 4 Little Ringed Plover + 1 young, 3 Shoveler + 2 broods with 15 young (10:5), 6 Shelduck, Whitethroat.
Click to expand...

Just to add Phil..Dave had two more Lapwing chicks in the meadow just as he was leaving. These were probably the same I saw on Tuesfay 21st May. :t:john
 
Large Gulls

Different times of day even different days show different numbers and even different behaviour.


Interesting to note Tim O's comment about 14 large gulls picking off BHG chicks about 1 every ten minutes this later afternoon.


This morning I noted 6 LBBGs of varying ages and if there were any Herring gulls I didn't consciously see any. The main thing was the ones I saw were playing "King of the Castle" either on the rails or the slabs on Pool island Too busy doing that to bother the BHGs at that time. That said the BHGs were getting irritated by the behaviour. Pic 1


Pic 2 is a poor representation of the number of large gulls on the late afternoon of the 23rd May. Poor colour contrasts.

What I wrote in the log book was 51 LBBGs and 6 Herring Gulls at least in each case. By the time I left I had revised that to 61 for the LBBGs some of which were dotted around the islands but didn't alter it in the book.

What I found of note was that the majority of the LBBGs were of the pale variety, but there were 6 of the dark variety and of course there were 6 very pale Herring Gulls.

I did give a great deal of thought to this because the birds were all in the same relative positions to the light source , so this didn't affect the identification. The other thought that had to be considered was the fact that many of the paler LBBGs were, shall we say, not fully mature birds. It was an interesting time looking at these birds.

Phil E
 

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Not great new from Andy P at the Flashes this morning:

No sign of of the Little Ringed Plover chick, only 3 Lapwing chicks seen so far (2 to the right of the hide, 1 still on the southern shoreline), 1 Oystercatcher chick, Shoveler brood with 5 ducklings, 35+ Avocet chicks and Dunlin still.

Cuckoo calling from the Education Reserve as per Gert.
 
Marsh Harrier at the Flashes at c11:30am drifted from behind sewage works and then south east out of view mobbed all the way by gulls and crows as per Gert
 

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