1/08/09
upton warren
decided to go straight to the east(lapwing) hide at the moors as a little egret had been frequenting the area in front of the hide.on entering the hide i saw the baby oystercatchers and seen how they had gone from hte cute baby look to the agressive teenager look,they did look a bit ragged,the 2 young and 2 adults were on the edges of the east islands(still overgrown at this point).but on looking for the egret there was no sign.i scanned around the islands noting the usual birds(lapwing,b h gull,common tern,after about an hour in the hide and with still no sign of the egret,i was getting restless,will this be another dip for me.
like the hell it was....
...aftertching a common tern flying close to the hide i put my bins down and saw a bird flying in from the north moors area(but looked more like the paddock-moors houses area).it was the egret!! (lifer)
i quickly called it out to another person in the hide and my dad,both managed to get onto it(but my dad had to wat untill it landed as he was looking in the wrong area).it flew quite close the the hide and landed on the front edge of the east islands,giving stunning views,or what i thought was stunning views.over the next hour or so,it got closer and closer and eventually walked onto the OYC cage island.i got many photos and films while watching it and managed to capture some good behaviour.in this video watch how the egret slants its head so it can judge the depth/distance of a fish:
the egret flew over towards the south west marsh and was lost to view,we then moved to the west hide and got distant views of it from there,and guess where it was right in front of the hide on the opposite side.despite hopeing for a water rail or bittern neither shown.another 3 OYC flew in boosting the total up to 7 birds.highlights here:
2 little grebe
5c g c grebe
1 little egret
1 shoveler
1 teal
7 OYC
10 common tern
2 stock dove
2 kingfisher
3 cettis warbler
getting out the car at the sp car park i saw movement in the bushes on the pool edge.after a brief look i noted there was 3 whitethroat and 5 reed warbler.i used up so much battery on my camera on the egret that i only had time to film a common sand and a green sand.a water rail was watched on the bank between the second and 3rd flash.an OYC from the moors had moved down here to have a rest,9 green sands were giving good views in front of the hide and there was also 2 common sand(but 3 were seen).36 curlew came in to roost,as did 200c lapwing and 500+ b h gull,23 common tern were noted on the flashes/sailing pool at dusk.as with mostrecent visits there was big nombers of stock dove we counted 10+ with them comming and going all the time
highlights here were:
2 teal
1 water rail
1 OYC
200c lapwing
9 green sand
2 common sand
36 curlew
23 common tern
3 whitethroat(all juv)
2 willow warbler
1 bullfinch
4 reed bunting
MB
4 comments:
As an ex Midlander I enjoy reading about the places you visit i.e Baggeridge. Use to go horse riding up there. Nice Blog
glad you like the blog
i must admit i dont 'work' baggerage a lot.i have been there a few times though and have noted some good stuff but its just i know better places to look and i cant really stand woodland birding,i just can never seem to pick anything up!!
MB
Unfortunatley any Barnacle Goose in our region and Slimbridge for that matter do have a dodgy credentials and would certainly be from introduced stock. Staffordshire proved that wild Barnacles Goose can occur, but this involved ringed individuals at the "right time" and they are the only Barnacle Geese up to yet that will appear in any of my regional lists. Think again about the one you saw at Slimbridge and consider a trip to Cumbria in the winter, where the known truely wild wintering flocks are. You really can't get close to them unless you are in a hide.
mr plastic strikes again...
the flock of 110 where from the ziess hide and at a distance on the marsh before moving onto the dumbles and when they flew all shown immaculate wings.the reason i say this is that barnicle goose has now been put onto catergry 'c' of the british list.he next sentence is copied offthe BOU website
C Species that, although introduced, now derive from the resulting self-sustaining populations.
the birders in the hide thought that they were natrualised enought to be counted but were not wild birds,itis on this ground that i claim this as a lifer(even if i would like to show my last 2 lifers more,sabine's gull and black tern).
MB
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