Upton Warren (61 Viewers)

Tuesday work party

We will be carrying out maintenance along the paths at Flashes. Also strimming in front of the Hen Pool hide....spotted crake time 8-P

Yesterday's WeBS counts courtesy of Dave J (numbers relate to adults and fledged young):

4 Mute Swan, 70 Canada Goose, 15 Greylag Geese, 2 Egyptian Goose, 2 Shelduck, 5 Teal, 4 Gadwall, 7 Shoveler, 190 Mallard, 35 Tufted Duck, 11 Little Grebe, 4 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Little Egret, 179 Coot, 19+ Moorhen, 2+ Water Rail, 7 Oystercatcher, 37 Avocet, 102 Lapwing, 9 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Common Sand, 8 Green Sand, 4 Redshank, 64 BH Gull, 13 LBB Gull, 3 Herring Gull, 17 Common Tern, 2 Kingfisher

Gert's sighting of six Whimbrel yesterday was the largest occurrence since the productive spring of 2013 when six were at the Flashes on the 5th May and seven were briefly at the same location on the 24th April.

Raising our game

At this time of year thoughts turn to the proverbial "patch gold" for any inland wetland site, an American wader. The history of Yanks is rather patchy at Upton Warren - plenty of Pectoral Sands, one mega rarity with a Least Sandpiper and one of the few sites in the country to have two records of Wilson's Phalarope but still missing some of the less scarce species such as Spotted and White-rumped Sandpiper. The regional (West Midland Bird Club) position on the occurrence of this group is as follows:

AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER
0 Upton Warren records
0 Worcestershire records
1 WMBC record (1 Warwickshire - a juvenile visited several sites 18-26/10/91)

LEAST SANDPIPER
1 Upton Warren record
1 Worcestershire record
3 WMBC records (1 Worcs as above, 1 Staffordshire - Chasewater 9-11/8/71; 1 Staffordshire / Warwickshire - Drayton Basset GP 23-25/5/02)

WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER
0 Upton Warren records
2 Worcestershire records (Bredon's Hardwick 15-16/9/96; Grimley Wagon Wheel Lane 14/7/12)
6 WMBC records (2 Worcs as above, 4 Staffordshire - Blithfield Reservoir 10-12/11/1979 & 08-11/12/79, Tittesworth Reservoir 6-7/7/84, Rudyard Reservoir 3/11/89, Middleton Lakes - 13-21/11/12)

BAIRD'S SANDIPER
0 Upton Warren records
0 Worcestershire records
2 WMBC records (1 Warwickshire - Draycote Water 28/9/96; 2 Staffordshire - Blithfield Reservoir 2-7/11/96, Chasewater 12/9/05)

PECTORAL SANDPIPER
8 Upton Warren records (most recent 24/9-11/10/10; occurrences as follows: 1 June, 2 July, 4 September & 1 October)
25 Worcestershire records (most recent Lower Moor 15-17/9/14)
89 WMBC records (25 Worcs as above, 37 Staffordshire - most recent Middleton Lakes 18-19/5/14, 22 Warwickshire - most recent Salford Priors 31/5/15, 5 West Midlands - most recent Marsh Lane 5/8/12)

BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER
0 Upton Warren records
0 Worcestershire records
5 WMBC records (2 Staffordshire - Chasewater 14/9/78, Blithfield Reservoir 7-22/9/80; 3 Warwickshire - Draycote Water 26/9-9/10/93, Draycote Water 2-16/9/94, Draycote Water 7/9/95)

LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER
0 Upton Warren records
2 Worcestershire records (Westwood Pool 9-20/10/90; Upper Bittell Reservoir 25/9-3/10/06)
3 WMBC records (2 Worcs as above, 1 Warwickshire - Draycote Water 10/10/83)

UPLAND SANDPIPER
0 Upton Warren records
0 Worcestershire records
1 WMBC record (1 Warwickshire - Compton Verney 31/10/1851 - the first ever British record)

LESSER YELLOWLEGS
0 Upton Warren records
0 Worcestershire records
3 WMBC records (3 Staffordshire - Blithfield Reservoir 15-30/9/79, Knighton Reservoir 11-16/11/95, Uttoxeter Quarry 29-31/5/11)

SPOTTED SANDPIPER
0 Upton Warren records
1 Worcestershire record (Westwood Pool 3/5/11)
11 WMBC regions (1 Worcs as above; 4 Staffordshire - Belvide Reservoir 18/5/82, Bevide 30-31/05/05, Tittesworth Reservoir 22/11-18/12/07, Belvide Reservoir 26/5/13; 5 Warwickshire - Draycote Water 8-10/5/77, Draycote Water 10-25/9/80, Draycote Water 29-30/5/90, Draycote Water 20/7/07, Draycote Water 7/5/14; 1 West Midlands - Marsh Lane 19-20/6/04)

WILSON'S PHALAROPE
2 Upton Warren records (juvenile at the Flashes 14/9/85, juvenile at the Flashes 23-26/9/07)
2 Worcestershire records (as above)
4 WMBC records (2 Worcs as above, 2 Warwickshire - Draycote Water 12-23/9/88, Draycote Water 1/10/96)

Morning at the Flashes

Juv. Redstart in hedge across transmitter field.

Redshank and LRP young still OK.

The saucer area held plenty of waders including a single Dunlin, however, a male Sparrowhawk was sitting on the walkway fence also viewing the saucer.

LEAST SANDPIPER
1 Upton Warren record

Mega record remember shooting down the M5 with Pete Hackett, Pete Forbes and Tim Hextell to see this little gem
Good Birding YAMYAM

yamyam said:

LEAST SANDPIPER
1 Upton Warren record

Mega record remember shooting down the M5 with Pete Hackett, Pete Forbes and Tim Hextell to see this little gem
Good Birding YAMYAM

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I remember us organising the Sunday twitch. The bird was found on Saturday afternoon. That day a trickle of the regulars saw it. The news was slow getting out in those days no mobiles etc.....news would have travelled quicker with smoke signals8-P.
Anyway before First light myself Stuart Croft and a few others...(I'm sure they will add their names later) arrived at the sailing pool car park. We were greeted by birders from all over the country. Some told us that they had already checked if the bird was present around the 'edge':eek!: We were somewhat taken aback and I was about to chastise them when I realised they meant the sailing pool ..:smoke:
Anyway we told them to stay in the car park until we checked if the bird was still present. With so many people all ready on site we were praying that it was still here. Stuart and myself went to the Flashes, after a nervous few minutes in almost darkness we located it to the left of the old hide in a small bay.
This was a great relief, but logistically this was going to be a nightmare as the side of the hide would only accommodate 5 people at a time.
Anyway I ran back to the top of the steps and waved to those assembled in the car park. We had kept the crowd back so we didn't have to charge them. The wave signalled the start of a stampede and a mad dash to the bide. We stopped the crowd at the bottom of the hide steps.
To allow a quick turnaround of people and give everyone a chance to see the bird we agreed to a '5 minute slot'. For their pound they were allowed into the hide for the 5 minutes as the bird performed well, everyone was happy. Those that wished to rejoined the que. This went great for the first few hours and many people left the reserve happy and thanked us for organising it.
We'll all was going great, until the bird flew a short distance and landed out of sight. :-C. Oh know with the crowd swelling all the time this was our worst nightmare.
We couldn't expect people to leave the hide until they had seen the bird. For an hour the bird hid, but thankfully it returned to its favoured spot and service resumed as normal. Unfortunately the crowd had swollen and the wait had increased to 4hours.
Luckily the birders were understanding and considering the distance many had travelled were in good humour although it could have been due to me knowing many of them in my twitching days that we didn't get any stick.
By 9pm only the straddlers remained and the day was deemed a success in more ways than one. From a financial perspective it was amazing, we had collected £750B . If you think that we only charged £1each and that didn't include all the local trust members then at least 1000 people saw the Least:t:

Tuesday work party

Today 8 of us cleared tracks and paths along Flashes and Hen Pool hide. Also an area of reeds were cleared in front of the Hen pool. This area is cut several times a year . This allows viewing into the reeds. During the summer it grows rapidly and as birds are breeding further in the reeds we don't cut it. However as the breeding season is now coming to an end we can open up a small section. Reed warblers don't breed in reeds less than a year old so as these reeds are only a few months it is safe to cut. But to be extra sure we checked before cutting.
Thanks to the lads for their help. Bob O. Bobby P. Bob R. Jim B. Paul M. Ray C Tony B and meB

Late news of an adult Arctic Tern at the Sailing Pool on Sunday afternoon as per Matt Smith (Fuzeare).

Moors today

Before work party from East hide.
Little grebe 8 ads. brood of 2 juvs NW corner: 3 well grown chicks SW marsh: 2 juvs off the lagoon. Gadwall 6 ad/juv brood of 2 chicks in SW marsh. Tufted 23 broods one fresh one in scrape. Oystercatcher. Common tern 4 plus 2 chicks. Swift 15. lesser whitethroat.

Flashes today

ïTeal 8. Shoveler 8. mallard 200 plus many broods of chicks. Shelduck 7 juvs.
Water rail 2 chicks in hen pool, where also a little grebe was trilling this is the first time little grebe has been reported on this site.
Avocet 39 (21 juv/ch). Oystercatcher 3. lapwing 85. Curlew 18 roosted .LRP 9 (6 juvs) + our 8 day old chick.
Redshank ad +3 juvs. Dunlin 2. green sand 11. Common sand.
BHG 800 roosted. Common tern. peregrine. stock dove 45. kingfisher. Reed warbler 6 in hen pool.

upstarts1979 said:

Teal 8. Shoveler 8. mallard 200 plus many broods of chicks. Shelduck 7 juvs.
Water rail 2 chicks in hen pool, where also a little grebe was trilling this is the first time little grebe has been reported on this site.
Avocet 39 (21 juv/ch). Oystercatcher 3. lapwing 85. Curlew 18 roosted .LRP 9 (6 juvs) + our 8 day old chick.
Redshank ad +3 juvs. Dunlin 2. green sand 11. Common sand.
BHG 800 roosted. Common tern. peregrine. stock dove 45.

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Also juv Redstart and 2 Raven as per birthday boy Gert

Sailing pool

Egyptian geese 2. GCG 4. tufted 3 broods. Oystercatcher 2 roosting tonight on North pontoon. Common tern.
blackcap

Phil Andrews said:

Please that next Wednesday (27th July) the Trust will be using the East Hide at the Moors Pool between 10 and 12 for a family birdwatching activity and visitors are requested to avoid using the hide during this period.

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Just a quick reminder for anyone who is visiting today.

With a minimum of 26 broods of Tufted Duck this year is now the most productive breeding season - amazing to think that up until 2013 the most pairs that ever bred in one year was eleven!

13 Black-tailed Godwits and 2 Dunlin at the Flashes.

Des.

Now 21 Black-tailed Godwits at the Flashes.

Des.

Phil Andrews said:

With a minimum of 26 broods of Tufted Duck this year is now the most productive breeding season - amazing to think that up until 2013 the most pairs that ever bred in one year was eleven!

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I'm pretty confident the 3 broods on the sailing pool were bred on the Flashes , judging by the age and brood sizes. 👍

Today's highlights:

FLASHES/HEN POOL*
Dunlin (3)--------------------Black-tailed Godwit (21). 17 flew off SW this evening.
Curlew (14)------------------Common Sand (1)
Green Sand (8)--------------LRP (7) inc 4 juvs + 1 chick
Oystercatcher (1)-----------Redshank (1) + 3 juvs
Lapwing ( c60)---------------Avocet (35)
Shoveler (6)-----------------Teal (2)
Shelduck (6 juvs)------------Raven
Redstart (juv)----------------Swift (2)
Common Tern (2)------------Little Grebe*

MOORS/N MOORS*
Gadwall (1)------------------Common Tern (2) + 2 chicks
G C Grebe (3ad + juv)-------Little Grebe (4)
Kingfisher--------------------Oystercatcher (2)
Swift (18)--------------------Teal (3)*

SAILING POOL:
Common Tern (5)------------Egyptian Goose (2)

+ Purple Hairstreak in Ash trees by Sailing Pool

Des.

What are your thoughts on the juvenile GC Grebe Des - young enough to have secretly been raised on the reserve or likely to have flown in from another site?