can it get any better

24/08/09

upton warren

the answer is yes it can

for some unknown reason we pulled in at the sailing club first,but i wanted to check the flashes out later for the roost,so after having a quick scan of the sailing pool resulted in 1 common tern but nothing more else apart from mallard.

at the moors we walked to the lapwing hide and there was quite a bit showing. a jay flushed from the bush behind the hide and flew into the educastioon reseve.a few minuites later i glanced over out the left side of the hide and there was a jay on the fence.i quickly grabbed my scope+camera and the bird was flying,then yet another jay came from the bush behind the hide and landed in a tree,it then flew to the bushes along the river and then all 3 birds popped out but were a little distant for dodgyscoping.we noted a bit of k-fisher activity on the broudmeadow and then suddely one zoomed towards us and landed on the stick giving stunning views,then the sun came out and of cause the sun was reflecting of the water behind the k-fisher but i till tried and got an acceptable video:

a few common terns were still hanging on and the cormorants were up to 6.then over to the west hide hoping for a water rail or even better a bittern but my luck had turned and none shown.a common sand flew from one of the tern boxes onto the islands.highlights here were

3 shoveler

2 teal

1 common sand

4 common tern

2 kingfisher

3 jay

a birder then entered the west hide and i told him what was about.his reply was shocking 'well theres 6 black tern on the sailing pool'.on this news i quickly gathered my stuff said thanks and rushed to the car.i had to get rid of another bogey bird.they werent there earlier so had to be recdntly arrived.i grabbed my bins and my scope and jogged to the bench.from here saw there indeed were 6 black tern(2 adult summer-winter,rest juv,family flock maybe)the views were good but we saw they were comming in much closer on the south shore,so we headed over there,i couldent expect a lifer to act the way these birds did the views were so close but so quick,one bird repetidly flew a metre or 2 away from us as it dip fed.i noticed how differant its flight was compared with 'sea terns' after watching these for some time(lost count how much time)

we headed towards the steps when a perigrine flew over carrying a white dove in its tallons which was still alive,featers were flying everywhere it flew towards the masts and was lost to view not to be seen again.we dropped into the hen pool where a 'showy cettis warbler shown well,a few reed warbler and a female gadwall.

walking to the avocet hide produced nothing.on entering the hide i asked if anyone had seen the black terns,they all seemed rather shocked.none of them had seen them,they all decided to stay put but not long after the black terns joined us anyway givving good but not as great views

one of the adult black terns landed giving me an op to try and get some pics.ok i admit there crap but you can tell its a black tern.then they flew back to the sailing pool they returned to the flashes at 7:40 pm then flew south at 7:42 pm.it wasne tlong before we were joined by more birders looking for the black terns,at around 8pm one birder came in,sat down and said 'ive got the sabine's',there was a mad rush to get on the bird then when we were all on it it gave great views of it doing its best to avoid the BHG's.mone of my videos show the amazing beauty of larus sabini. unfortunatly it only flapped its wings once revaling its upperwing patter which birders simply die for.but i was lucky enough to be filming the bird as it done just that so enjoy this as much as i have:

the rest of the night is pritty self explanitory,we watched the sabine's gull untill dark but kept an eye out for anything else,i never get tired of this bird.i got loads more films but a lot are dark and doesent show the bird doing much so i will leave them out

highlights are:

1 gadwall

3 shoveler

30c teal

1 perigrine

1 LRP(juv)

1 dunlin(juv)

10c green sand

3 common sand

10c curlew(came in when it was dark)

2 snipe

1000c BHG's

1 SABINE'S GULL

8 common tern

6 BLACK TERN (lifer)

5 stock dove

2 cetti's warbler

4 reed warbler

1 willow warbler

again i will end the post like this what a day and what a start to a week(well 9 days) over my dads 21/08-30/08/09

some more good stuff coming up soon,and a post just fr you martyn one about slimbridge,the home of ultimate plastics(with a load of wild birds thrown in)

MB