Upton Warren (2 Viewers)

[timmyjones]

Went to Upton today around 2ish spent a fair time in the east hide in the snow!

Birds noted were 1 Little Egret around Amy's Marsh and then flew to roost in the Education Reserve. 1 male Wigeon with the Shoveler and a Little Grebe flew out briefly from the reeds to the right before disappearing again. 3 Shelduck were there (2m1f) one male was obviously paired with the female and this one was constantly chasing the other male off this continued for about 30 mins before they took it to the flashes! 25 Snipe were busy feeding and a Green Woodpecker made a brief visit.

Counts of other birds included- 22 Teal, 9 Canada Geese, 32 Shoveler, 12 Tufted Duck, 2 LBBG, 76 Lapwing, 32 Pochard, 2 Pied Wag, 41 Coot, 16 Cormorant, 10 Greylag, 7 Moorhen and 2 Great Crested Grebe.

Also when walking away bumped into a guy who had seen the Bittern fly across the pool at 3:30pm although I missed it!

 

[Sy V]

I now have a first stab video to upload but I suspect one or more firewalls are stopping the procedure.
I have noticed a marked degradation of the quality of the imagery from original to up-loadable clip. While I'm waiting to go home and try it from there I'll post a screen grab of some of the settings I've used on the various software. Perhaps somebody will notice a glaringly obvious mistake and let me know...

This first one is of the settings in 'Super' which I've used to convert the originals out of .mov format.
The second shot are some of the settings I used in 'Pinnacle VideoSpin' to produce the video that I've not, as yet, been able to upload.

 

[Gertatron]

Moors Pools this morning. Lovely light with the sun out - very clear and snow melting.

Little Egret again feeding in front of the East Hide, 3 Shelduck, A very content looking fox by the boat on the big island with the strip of bramble. Discussed with Gordon as to whether the bramble and scrub should be removed entirely as its providing cover for the Fox and, if removed, would give a good expanse for more breeding waders. Seems like a good idea to me.

Cettis performing well. Lack of Little Grebe means my year list is static!

Interesting to see lots of different Thrushes in the field next to the workshops - Redwing, Song and Mistle Thrush and Blackbird. Only Fieldfare missing.

Display drumming of Great Spotted Woodpecker heard and many smaller birds, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Blue Tit in display song which was nice to hear. Come on Spring!

Left when East Hide got overcrowded...

Cheers
Gert

 

[Sy V]

Video upload worked fine from home. The resultant clip can be found here.

As I said earlier, it's not as sharp as I'd like and I'd love to know why...

 

[upstarts1979]

Discussed with Gordon as to whether the bramble and scrub should be removed entirely as its providing cover for the Fox and, if removed, would give a good expanse for more breeding waders. Seems like a good idea to me.

Good point spoke to Gordon and Stuart this afternoon about that subject:t:

Left when East Hide got overcrowded...
I couldn't believe how many people were there this afters car park was rammed.

Hi Gert can only add 2 ad Common Gull briefly on east island. Duck counts were Shoveler 35, Teal 42, Shelduck 4. Snipe 20, Curlew 14, Raven 2, and a year tick - Kestrel which seem pretty un-common this year.
cheers John
year list 71

 

[timmyjones]

Hi Gert can only add 2 ad Common Gull briefly on east island. Duck counts were Shoveler 35, Teal 42, Shelduck 4. Snipe 20, Curlew 14, Raven 2, and a year tick - Kestrel which seem pretty un-common this year.
cheers John
year list 71

John wanna share a common gull? You seem to have had all the records so far this year!

Are the Shelduck 2pairs? The lone male was being chased by the paired one yesterday.

 

[Woodchat]

Hi Gert can only add 2 ad Common Gull briefly on east island. Duck counts were Shoveler 35, Teal 42, Shelduck 4. Snipe 20, Curlew 14, Raven 2, and a year tick - Kestrel which seem pretty un-common this year.
cheers John
year list 71

There's 2 UW year ticks for me right there (Raven and Com Gull) - hope they put in an appearance tomorrow.

Seen loads of Kestrels though (including one on the day of the last work party John!):t:

 

[Gertatron]

Video upload worked fine from home. The resultant clip can be found here.

As I said earlier, it's not as sharp as I'd like and I'd love to know why...

Hi Simon,
Do you need to manually focus when you use the video function ? - I know its an obvious one but on the Nikon D90, D5000 and the new D300s they all need to be manually focused when shooting in video mode.
Still find it amazing you can now use an SLR to shoot video!
Cheers
Gert

 

[upstarts1979]

John wanna share a common gull? You seem to have had all the records so far this year!

Are the Shelduck 2pairs? The lone male was being chased by the paired one yesterday.

Hi Tim
Yes why not I will have your GBBgull
yet Common gulls are so common in gloucestershire but rare in north worcs.
I saw the flock of 7 early Jan, its just one of those species that stays for a few minutes even at the flashes roost.
The 2 shelducks of last week were 2 males so 2 fems have joined them . There seems to be one dominant male with 2 females but they all roost together at the flashes.

cheers John

 

[upstarts1979]

There's 2 UW year ticks for me right there (Raven and Com Gull) - hope they put in an appearance tomorrow.

Seen loads of Kestrels though (including one on the day of the last work party John!):t:

Hi Dave
The ravens landed in the farmyard next to the salwarpe, so they must be sticking around as I saw mine closeby over the wood some weeks ago. I think common gull at this time of year just move north in small numbers although we did have that big flock in spring not too long ago, should be no problem with that one.
cheers John

 

[upstarts1979]

A photo of some curlews 17th Feb on Amy's marsh showing the variation of bill length

 

[upstarts1979]

The FLASHES FEEDING STATION
This feeding station was initiated in 1984. Over the years many species were attracted to the food which include Brambling (40), Corn Bunting (5) Tree Sparrow (23) water rail (max 4). All the common birds associated with garden feeders occur in varying amounts.
The early years saw water rail regularly catching and drowning a number of species including brambling. This area was the best place in the midlands to see water rail and at that time was the main attraction during the winter on the reserve.
In time the novelty of the feeding station wore off and if I'm honest I very rarely visit it nowadays. However on wednesday 17th Feb Des and me sat there for a while and it rekindled my old enthusiasm for this area.
There is no doubt that there are not so many birds in this area as there were in 1984. But there were good numbers of reed bunting and 5 Bullfinch as well as 2 water rail plus all the common species.
After leaving the hide I reminisced about the rarer birds that occurred in this area. These were in no real order:- Long eared owl (2) in the blackthorn I seem to remember the 1st and 2nd reserve records. Bearded tit along the channel in front of the hide, Bluethroat the one and only seen on the reserve. Great Grey shrike (previously mentioned in a recent post) Nightingale (the first for the reserve) and firecrest. More recently a Bittern (Jan 2010) was in the reedbed. I am sure there are more if you know of any please add to this.
After this I will definately spend more time there and urge others to do so in search of that elusive vagrant.
cheers John

 

[upstarts1979]

Birding at the Flashes 19th Feb 2010

Myself and Paul Croft spent nearly 2 hours here today until dark(6pmish)
It was much quieter than 17th Feb and the water had risen by 1cm. The birds were being spooked by a male sparrowhawk. The small BHG gull roost
(150) finally gave up and roosted on the sailing pool. The Teal flock had moved to the Moors and not one snipe was seen. It would appear that the fewer the birds there are prior to roosting the less likely other birds will come into roost. Three groups of greylag totalling 22 flew straight over where as Feb 17th saw them roost. Apart from 600 Lapwing and 4 shelduck nothing else roosted.
The Stock Dove roost in the sewage works numbered 35.
The Little Egret again roosted in trees at the north end of the sailing pool.

The photo shows lapwing city

 

[Woodchat]

Myself and Paul Croft spent nearly 2 hours here today until dark(6pmish)
It was much quieter than 17th Feb and the water had risen by 1cm. The birds were being spooked by a male sparrowhawk. The small BHG gull roost
(150) finally gave up and roosted on the sailing pool. The Teal flock had moved to the Moors and not one snipe was seen. It would appear that the fewer the birds there are prior to roosting the less likely other birds will come into roost. Three groups of greylag totalling 22 flew straight over where as Feb 17th saw them roost. Apart from 600 Lapwing and 4 shelduck nothing else roosted.
The Stock Dove roost in the sewage works numbered 35.
The Little Egret again roosted in trees at the north end of the sailing pool.

The photo shows lapwing city

Lovely! Cheers for the above posts. Helps me apprieciate whats happening when I can't be there due to work! Will be there most of tomorrow though. Can't wait till the clocks go forward and I can steal an hour or two before it gets dark.

 

[timmyjones]

Got an email from Gary Prescot today saying that he has posted some photos on from his adventures so far all looks really good. I saw this photo and thought a couple of the guys on here might be interested

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/4303200666/

I think I can see John, Dave, Gert and is that Phil at the back?

 

[upstarts1979]

Got an email from Gary Prescot today saying that he has posted some photos on from his adventures so far all looks really good. I saw this photo and thought a couple of the guys on here might be interested

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/4303200666/

I think I can see John, Dave, Gert and is that Phil at the back?

Hi Tim who's that football hooligan 3rd one along with the stone island jacket ...oh ye its me

yes thats the 4 of us there

I have been following Gary's blog yes he is doing well.

cheers John

 

[upstarts1979]

Lovely! Cheers for the above posts. Helps me apprieciate whats happening when I can't be there due to work! Will be there most of tomorrow though. Can't wait till the clocks go forward and I can steal an hour or two before it gets dark.

Hi Dave
The reserve has been well covered this week with Tim Craig Des Gordon Stuart etc putting time in.
So its over to you and the other weekend boys to get the biggy then.
I don't know whats happening at the Flashes its either all or nothing we must open the sluice next week . Strange why there are no snipe though.
I saw a fox come from the left of the hide so getting through the fence somehow, have to investigate.
cheers John

 

[Gertatron]

Birding at Upton early 20/2/2010

Hi Dave
The reserve has been well covered this week with Tim Craig Des Gordon Stuart etc putting time in.
So its over to you and the other weekend boys to get the biggy then.
I don't know whats happening at the Flashes its either all or nothing we must open the sluice next week . Strange why there are no snipe though.
I saw a fox come from the left of the hide so getting through the fence somehow, have to investigate.
cheers John

Got to the Flashes just before 7am. Very cold. Nothing much on the Sailing pool and usual passerines on the way to the Flashes especially 3 Bullfinch, 2 Reed Bunting and a feeding flock of Long tailed, Great and Blue tits.

The Flashes themselves were frozen over but had 30 odd Curlew and approx 300 Lapwing. 2 Shelduck flew over on the way to the Moors. 4 Greylags flew over.

Walking over to the Moors saw a Kingfisher on the Salwarpe and 4 Redpolls in Alders.

From the east hide on the Moors one Oystercatcher was seen roosting on the far island. At least a dozen Snipe huddled together for warmth and good numbers of wildfowl again - particularly Shovler and Pochard. 2 Great Crested Grebes were displaying to each other briefly despite one not having fully grown its crest!

Snowdrops are just coming out in the woodland on the North Moors.

On the way back to the Flashes with Mike saw the Little Egret in its usual roosting tree on the Sailing Pool which I either missed the first time or it snuck in subsequently!

Left Mike at the entrance to the Flashes..

My year list creeping slowly to 67 with the Oystercatcher...

Some photos taken this morning can be found here;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildgert/sets/72157623347640365/

 

[upstarts1979]

Got to the Flashes just before 7am. Very cold. Nothing much on the Sailing pool and usual passerines on the way to the Flashes especially 3 Bullfinch, 2 Reed Bunting and a feeding flock of Long tailed, Great and Blue tits.

The Flashes themselves were frozen over but had 30 odd Curlew and approx 300 Lapwing. 2 Shelduck flew over on the way to the Moors. 4 Greylags flew over.

Walking over to the Moors saw a Kingfisher on the Salwarpe and 4 Redpolls in Alders.

From the east hide on the Moors one Oystercatcher was seen roosting on the far island. At least a dozen Snipe huddled together for warmth and good numbers of wildfowl again - particularly Shovler and Pochard. 2 Great Crested Grebes were displaying to each other briefly despite one not having fully grown its crest!

Snowdrops are just coming out in the woodland on the North Moors.

On the way back to the Flashes with Mike saw the Little Egret in its usual roosting tree on the Sailing Pool which I either missed the first time or it snuck in subsequently!

Left Mike at the entrance to the Flashes..

My year list creeping slowly to 67 with the Oystercatcher...

Some photos taken this morning can be found here;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildgert/sets/72157623347640365/

Hi Gert
Nice sunrise pics - that looks cold mate.
30 curlew that is a sign of migration as there has been only 14 max recently.
Were all getting bunched up in the late 60's early 70's needs some one to break away. A few sneaky early mornings mid-weekers in the spring should suffice, while everyone is at work .......no flushing allowed and no single observer recordso
cheers john

 

[midlands birder]

im on 64 for the uw year list
excuse me now but im going there now(after grimley,yes i know the scaup has gone) to get tim's little grebe
MB