RSPB Middleton Lakes (1 Viewer)

[Phil Andrews]

White-rumped Sandpiper (second site record) on Jubilee Wetlands yesterday; also 2 Sanderling.

 

[Julie50]

Is this one of the sanderlings?

 

[Piccalilli]

Is this one of the sanderlings?

Yep Julie that's a Sanderling and if seen today then I think there was only the one so should be the same bird as this:-

 

[SteveAtkinson]

White-rumped Sandpiper 25.5.18

What a day it was on Friday (25th). I got to Middleton about 7:30am hoping that the pouring rain would bring something good down but never expected a White-rumped Sandpiper!
After 3hrs I was soaked through to my underpants despite having a complete set of waterproofs on, and was at the east screen of Jubilee thinking about packing up and going home. It hadn't been too bad, I'd seen 2 Sanderling, 4 Dunlin, 10 Ringed Plover and the Greenshank that had been around for a few days.

John Harris came by, and as usual we had a chat. He was the only other birder I'd seen so far that morning other than Katie the warden. As we were talking 2 small waders dropped onto the scrape. We both started to look for them, one had gone directly into the undergrowth and I got my scope on to the other one that was on the edge of the island directly in front of us. We knew it was something special immediately - thinking Baird's or White-rumped Sandpiper. We checked very carefully and decided it was almost certainly the latter. I was so relieved that John was with me, it would have been difficult to be confident to put out a sighting like that without confirmation. After about 15mins Paul Hyde turned up had a good look and confirmed that it was indeed a White-rumped Sandpiper.

We first saw the bird at 10:35 but by 10:55 it had flown while I was cleaning my scope - everything, including my camera, was drenched. Fortunately shortly after we first saw it I started banging off loads of pictures. I was then able to transfer them to my phone as my camera has Wi-Fi and tweet one of them out. It was massively frustrating however as my phone was wet and the touch screen was misbehaving so it took a while.

John, Paul and I then split up to see if we could relocate it. Fortunately Katie and a group of RSPB volunteers had seen my tweet and turned up by the west scrape in the RSPB pick up. They relocated it in the middle of Jubilee Wetlands where I joined them to get some distant views of it associating with one of the Sanderling. I left at 11:55 knackered, soaked, but very, very happy.

For more pics see my twitter account - @atkinson_steve - as you can't upload decent photos here.

 

[Rob_S]

Dry but humid and with regular rumbles of thunder in the distance at Middleton this morning.
74 species between 6am and 11am.

Grey Plover on East Scrape.
Multiples of LRP, RP, Redshank, Common Sandpiper flitting between East and West scrapes.
Reports of Dunlin and Snipe dropping in, but I didn't see either.
Loads of Swifts but very few Swallows or House Martins.

Plenty of very active and noisy summer migrants around, both in the reed beds and the trees/bushes.

 

[geoffw1946]

Morning all, having read this discussion with interest I thought that it was worth me adding some information about the works recently completed at Middleton and the current flooding.

The channel restrictor is designed to reduce the impacts of modest river rises and low level flooding that occurs regularly throughout the year and can have impacts on the breeding season for ground nesters on the islands. As Middleton Lakes sits within the floodplain it will always flood at times of major flooding and the restrictor was not designed to stop those major inundations, in this instance the levels rise and overtop the structure (whilst also overtopping the spillways into the north pit as it has always done). To cut the wetlands off from the river would require major engineering and would not be permitted as it would increase flood risk downstream it would also reduce the quality of habitat as the movement of water in and out and the irregular water levels are actually beneficial to the many waders that use the dynamic edges.

To put the current flooding into context, around midnight on Friday the river reached its highest level in five years and this surge is what caused most of the inundation that we now see. Its normal level at the measuring point is between 30cm in dry conditions and 80cm after rain. That surge overnight on Friday night pushed it to 1.4m. The ongoing wet conditions and the saturated ground means that the water heads straight for the river and the lower Tame is one of the first places that it can spill its banks.

We will only know how the restrictor performs in more modest river rises and hopefully this current flooding will be a thing of the past once we move into the breeding season proper.

For any other information or if you have questions, please don't ever hesitate to email me [email protected]

Cheers,

Nick

Last weeks latest flood had washed out most of the regular waders including the 2 pairs of Avocets. Looking at the high water mark on the inside of the Lookout hide it appears it was almost as high as the June 2016 flood. Lets hope the EA and the RSPB can sort something out or we will continue to lose breeding wetland birds into the future. Dosthill NR appears to have been unaffected by the flood as there are no river inlets to it but the islands there are all heavily overgrown and are mostly unsuitable for nesting.
Today 57 species of birds were seen, highlights being 3 Egyptian Geese, 3 Shelduck ducklings, 2 Wigeon, 1 Teal, 1 drake Garganey on JWs, 1 Pochard, 3 Sanderling and 2 Dunlin on JWs and a Cuckoo.

 

[geoffw1946]

Managed to catch up with the Spoonbill on JWs today, my 194th species for here. There was a record count of 17 Avocet on JWs, 3 juvenile or female Goosander on the river, a Water Rail on new reed bed pit, 2 LRP, 1 Lapwing chick, 2 Redshank and a Curlew was reported, a Cuckoo was calling.

 

[geoffw1946]

A good selection of birds this afternoon including a pair of Egyptian Geese with 2 goslings, 1 Wigeon, 2 Hobby, 4 Avocet, 1 LRP, 1 Ringed Plover, 1 Dunlin, 2 Snipe on east scrape and 4 Redshank.

 

[geoffw1946]

Todays highlights were 1 pair and 2 gosling Egyptian Geese, 1 Wigeon, several Teal, 1 drake Garganey west scrape JWs, 2 Oystercatcher and a Green Sandpiper Hall Lake, 2 Avocet, several LRP and Ringed Plover, 1 Dunlin, 2 Black-tailed Godwit east scrape, 4 Redshank, 1 Common Sandpiper and a Cuckoo was calling.

 

[geoffw1946]

This afternoon 3 male Ruff flew into JWs. On Hall Lake were 4 Green Sandpiper and a Grey Wagtail was at the outflow from the lake.

 

[Phil Andrews]

This afternoon 3 male Ruff flew into JWs. On Hall Lake were 4 Green Sandpiper and a Grey Wagtail was at the outflow from the lake.

Also drake Garganey on Jubilee Wetlands

 

[geoffw1946]

This mornings highlights 1 Garganey, 2 Avocet, 5 LRP, 1 Ringed Plover, 2 Snipe and 1 Redshank all JWs south.
101 species of birds were seen this month.

 

[Phil Andrews]

I understand Avocet chicks have been seen today?

 

[Piccalilli]

I understand Avocet chicks have been seen today?

Yep Phil - I had the privilege earlier of watching the first 2 being escorted to the waters edge for the first time. Amazing could have only just hatched as they could hardly walk. Picture on the blog later

 

[geoffw1946]

I understand Avocet chicks have been seen today?

The fourth and final chick has hatched today and all are looking well on the east scrape.
A pair of Great Crested Grebe have 3 young on FMP and a pair of Common Tern have 2 fledged young which hang around the east scrape.
Cormorant numbers have increased to 28 on JWs.

 

[rollingthunder]

A pleasant few hours ystda which included my first rain for quite some time. Plenty of juveniles including 3 Avocets, 2 juv LRP, 2 Shelduck, Water Rail, Common Terns and 3 Raven with an adult plus commoner stuff e.g. Reed Bunting and Reed Warbler. A calling adult Hobby was noted and a very persistant adult LBB intent on taking a Tuftie chick but was seen off by Mum:t:

Laurie:t:

 

[Adrian k]

I am looking for info on a gentleman named Steve (that's all I have) he said he used to come and help out at the reserve some days.
He used to drive a silver/grey for fiesta and lives in the Halesowen area, I went past his house this morning and saw the for sale signs up and his car park outside, it was obvious it hadn't been moved for quite a while any info would be great.

 

[Rob_S]

Any thoughts on what this might have been please?

At the edge of the reedbed by the car park feeders - black chick with a markedly prominent yellow bill - no red - sufficiently developed that it was diving as though looking for food and no immediate sign of a parent bird, but probably only fist-sized. There were plenty of Moorhen and Coot chicks around this morning, at various stages of development, and I'm pretty confident it was neither. Next port of call was Water Rail, but the bill on these doesn't seem to get as yellow as the bird I saw this morning. Plumage too black to be Little Grebe.

Any other suggestions?

Lovely morning, 63 species but sadly neither yesterday's Spotted Flycatcher nor Sunday's Greenshank.

Also Muntjac across the entrance road near the car park as I arrived.

 

[Periwinkle]

Maybe sounds like a little grebe (young are quite dark with yellowish bill)

 

[Rob_S]

Maybe sounds like a little grebe (young are quite dark with yellowish bill)

Thank you. I've had a trawl through photos online and I can't find any Little Grebe chicks quite that black, with a bill quite that yellow. Wish I'd been able to get a photo.