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

Upton Warren (134 Viewers)

midlands birder said:
A stunning ringed adult Mediterranean Gull in the roost tonight ( red ring, left leg, 5P5?), had started to moult its black head off, but was still easilly picked out.
now have seen every year age of med at upton, and only have 2w to get before ive seen every plumage here!!
10+ Green sand, ( 1 on Sailing pool in darkness (heard)), 2 Common Sand, 31 Curlew, 1 LRP, 5 Common Tern. 2 Little egret flying to and fro from moors every now and then.

Moors
2 Egret the only birds of note (from west hide), only 1 was present when we first came, then the 2nd flew in from flashes and landed in large tree to right of east hide (from the west hide remember), and after a bit the 1st bird then flew to the flashes, we then went and had a look at a fledged family of Sparrowhawk on the track by the river, where we saw the 1st egret fly back in.
Photo's to follow tomorrow when i have more time
MB
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Nice one MB - the first Med of the summer roost; had a quick trawl through the Euring website but couldnt find a programme that looked likely (whilst slicker and better presented I find the new website far less user friendly). How many young Sprawks did you see?

Phil
 
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Woodchat said:
Hi Mark,

For comparison purposes - I took this picture of a Migrant Hawker on my local patch (Coney Meadow, Salwarpe) last year:

It has a more obviously golf-tee-shaped mark. Also, as Reg says, the antehumeral stripes are indistinct.
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That's a cracking photo Dave, I shall keep that as a future reference :t:
 
Survey work at the Flashes

Please note that the Trust will be undertaking botantical and invertebrate surveys at the Flashes on the following times and dates:

Tuesday 2nd August - 10:00am to 4:00pm
Thursday 4th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Tuesday 9th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Thursday 11th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Tuesday 16th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Thursday 18th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm

We understand that disturbance will be greatest with the first few surveys. Hopefully these will give us a valuable insight into the species present at Upton and its foodchain (ultimately resulting in food for the birdlife).

It is unfortunate that these surveys are not coinciding with the erection of the hide and I would ask that if anyone is able to visit the Flashes early morning on any of these six dates to see what has dropped in during return wader migration then it would be extremely useful. The weather forecast for the coming Tuesday and Thursday look very interesting with warm southerly winds but light rain.
 
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Had another pleasant few hours at the Moors this morning. The Egrets were present on and off and it was good to catch up with Mike.
Just a couple of shots, but am I the only one who think the Ardeidae Family look a bit Motown-esque in this particular shot!
 

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upton-till-i-die said:
Nice one MB - the first Med of the summer roost; had a quick trawl through the Euring website but couldnt find a programme that looked likely (whilst slicker and better presented I find the new website far less user friendly). How many young Sprawks did you see?

Phil
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we had at least 2 Juv's in bushes by the river, and an extra 1 on the opposite side of the moors a couple of minuites earlier, so at least 2 pos 3!!

And as said last nite, here are a few Med images of the adult from last nite, sorry about quality, on far side of flash and quite crap light. and just a general lack of skill on my part ;)
SDC17138.JPG

SDC17139.JPG

SDC17140.JPG

MB
 
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waterrailus said:
Phil, further to my report on Friday, i got to moors at 5am so it wasnt quite light, saw the sandpiper but it was quite far away from East hide. through the bins i noticed a flash of yellow on one leg so decided to take a few snaps. It was continuously being flushed by BHGs and as it landed i saw that the single flash of yellow was now in 2 pieces (on lower right leg) then saw it had plain metal ring on lower left leg. On processing pics i now see what is possibly a white coloured ring high up on its left leg! It would be interesting to know where it was all done! I have attached a couple of admittedly dodgy pics with the usual caveats of poor light (iso 1200 before anything would register!), far distance etc regards Dennis
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This Common Sand, first noted by Dennis on the 22nd July and observed on several dates since at the Moors Pool, was ringed on 11th July 2011 at Ladybower Reservoir, Derbyshire as a fledgling.
 
Hi gang,

attatched is a pic of a Juv Med Gull on The Flashes this Afternoon.
As usual these things are never the closest bird so a heavy crop was required.Can anybody ID the Dragonfly from the head on angle.It wasn`t very big.

Also one of the Egrets from The Moors yesterday.

Chris
 

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cooky1 said:
Hi gang,

attatched is a pic of a Juv Med Gull on The Flashes this Afternoon.
As usual these things are never the closest bird so a heavy crop was required.Can anybody ID the Dragonfly from the head on angle.It wasn`t very big.

Also one of the Egrets from The Moors yesterday.

Chris
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My guess is the dragonfly is a Common Darter - but Des will probably give a more definitive answer.
 
Water Shrew

I found this freshly-dead Water Shrew on the east path on the moors this afternoon. I don't know what killed it but it was completely unmarked.

Also pictured below is one of the juvenile Mediterranean Gulls which put in a brief appearance on the moors plus a smart adult Common Gull from the flashes.
 

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First visit in 2 weeks, couldn't believe how low the water has dropped on all the pools.
Passerine activity is at a low point at the moment but it wont be long before the juveniles of many species start moving through.
Moors Today:
a fresh brood of 11 Tufted, still a few surviving from the 4 other brood. Juv little grebe and GCG
Common sandand green sand plus 20 lapwing. A juv Med gull stayed for a while before moving on to the flashes. A few reed, sedge and willow warbler and chiffchaff were heard.
Flashes today:
2 juv Med Gulls stayed together on the dry central area before flying off to the south at 5.50pm. at least 2 common gulls moved through. c450 BHG roosted as did 11 Common Tern at least 5 juvs.
Waders were represented by 13 Green sands, 3 common sands, 32 Curlew and 60 lapwing.
just the one Teal and c150 Mallard.
 
upton-till-i-die said:
Further to my posts a few weeks ago, I attach charts from the remaining headline breeding species at Uton Warren , starting with Little Ringed Plover.

Whilst never a prolific breeder, between 1994 and 2004 LRP had become firmly established at Upton (particularly at the Flashes) with up to 8 young fledged a year, although many chicks were losts or nests abandoned / predated. When the species failed to fledge a single youngester for five consecutive years from 2005 to 2009 it was feared that LRP may lose all affinity to Upton Warren as a breeding site. Luckily the last two years have seen a return to form with four young raised each year. Continued management work will be undertaken to ensure that LRPs have suitable nesting sites away from the pressure created by the Avocets and that there are areas of insect-rich shoreline to provide feeding grounds for newly hatched chicks:
Click to expand...

Sorry Phil only 3 raised last year a 2 and a 1 from the same pair:t: John
 
cooky1 said:
Hi gang,

attatched is a pic of a Juv Med Gull on The Flashes this Afternoon.
As usual these things are never the closest bird so a heavy crop was required.Can anybody ID the Dragonfly from the head on angle.It wasn`t very big.

Also one of the Egrets from The Moors yesterday.

Chris
Click to expand...

As Dave indicated it is a Common Darter, but it could easily be a Ruddy Darter. The main differences are the black/straw coloured legs and the area inbetween the eyes which when magnified on your image shows a small black horizontal line. On Ruddy Darter the line would extend much further and the legs are all black.

Des.
 
Oops - as an addendum to yesterday's post, I had forgotten this bad boy who dropped in for a quick bath!
 

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upton-till-i-die said:
...

Tuesday 2nd August - 10:00am to 4:00pm
Thursday 4th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Tuesday 9th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Thursday 11th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Tuesday 16th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm
Thursday 18th August - 9:00am to 5:00pm

We understand that disturbance will be greatest with the first few surveys. ...
Click to expand...

Oh joy and bliss. Looks like I picked exactly the wrong fortnight to take off work!
 
UW82 said:
Hi Adrian. I use a Panasonic DMC-FZ38-18X-12 Mega pixels. No big lenses. The original shots need enlarging and cropping because I am not always standing close to an object. If I have my settings set on the highest quality possible, whilst sacrificing the number of images I can get, it is possible to get good quality results.

Des.
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Cheers, Des. I hadn't really considered going down the compact route, but it actually makes sense - I could leave the 500mm lens on the dslr for birds, and also carry a compact for insects - I think the hassle of carrying more kit is worth it if I don't have to faff around swapping lenses every 5 minutes.

I notice everybody else is now also taunting me by posting fantstic Dragonfly shots on this thread...

Adrian
 

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