Marloes and the Gann

27/05/14

Following on from a brilliant time on Skomer island, we then decided to check out some of the other birding sites on the peninsular around Marloes and Dale. This area is one of my favourite in Pembrokeshire, and it is always worthwhile for a check.

Marloes Mere was fairly hard going, and other than a few ducks, that being 4 Gadwall (which I believe may have been my first in Pembs!) and 3 Shoveler it was all a little 'samey'. No surprises here like I had last year! After giving the south end of the Mere a good grilling, we thought best to head off to a location that I always get exited about!

The Gann

And luckily, it proved much more interesting! After walking along the shingle ridge and reaching the far end, the first bird I saw was a Grey Plover, again, a first for Pembs for me, and not something I would expect to see here at the end of May!

A Little Egret and and Shelduck were also in attendance.

It was hard to believe the amount of 'damage' that had happened over the winter since my last visit. I think the extremely high tide made it look much worse than it was, but it was obvious that large areas of the shingle had been displaced, and the old 'exit stream' of the Pools had infact become an inflow! The shingle ridge was also much steeper than the gentle incline it was before, and it was clear that much of the shape of the wider bay had changed! The power of the sea!

Even during previous high tides spent here, I have never seen the saltmarsh covered adjacent to the Gann river, but with the tide and displaced shingle it was easily inundated even before the water reached its peak. In a way that was a blessing, as the rising tides pushed 3 Whimbrel and 5 Curlew out of the Channels, which then went on to pose for us on the dryer ground.

 With the family now calling, it was time to head back, and as we turned to walk away, a pair of Ringed Plover dropped in on the tideline a short distance away, before these too moved over onto the saltmarsh to roost.

MB

Skomer Island! Puffins, Owls and Seabirds!

27/05/14

Many of you will know my relationship with this small offshore island off the Pembrokeshire coast is dire!

And I truly mean DIRE!

I have been visiting Pembrokeshire, once, maybe twice every year for almost all of my recollectable life, and still, despite attempting almost every year, I have been unable to tread on the hallowed tuft that is the Island of Skomer. Many reasons across the years have prevented me, illness, weather, the boat being fully booked. But that changed this year! Despite arriving well before even the first boat, a long queue had already assembled, and a long wait followed, but eventually, despite arriving around 8:30, finally had our place secured on the 11am boat!

Now rather than one of my usual wordy posts, I think I'm going to spare you the waffle for the simple reason that every one of you who would read this knows the reason for my visit, ridiculous close views of Puffin, day flying Short-eared Owls and huge colonies of seabirds!

Having climbed the steps onto the island, and having walked slightly into the interior, you quickly notice a number of Bluebells lining the paths (And just about everything else if I'm honest), and following a short walk, a stunning Short-eared Owl was sitting up on a fence post among the carpet of blue.

In the distance, the huge Gannet colony on Grassholm could be viewed, with almost half of the island covered in shining Gannets and countless tons of guano.

After completing a circuit of the perimeter of the island, we made our way to the most famous breeding cliff on the island at 'The Wick', where, even despite my best efforts, I too became infactuated with some small, pied clownish birds bobbling their way along the clifftops.

The Puffins!

Now I've seen loads already on my walk around the island, and infact any sort of glance at the sea, even from the mainland revealed a huge number of thousands of Puffins.

The ones in the Wick though are rather special in that you can get within a few feet of them.....

Having had my fill, it was time to continue on, past the crowds, but via one of the best views on the island (in my opinion) where you look down into the Wick upon thousands of Puffin, Guillemot, Razorbill, Kittiwake etc, and right out into the Irish sea! Rather a stunning view!

Needless to say, this Puffin was rather happy he'd snagged this awesome piece of real-estate before the rest of the colony! 

We stopped in one of the small hides overlooking a tiny puddle of a pool, and it was covered with a good number of Gulls, Herring and LBBG were predominate, but Kittiwakes were dropping in very regularly to preen, and to collect mud for their nests on the cliff ledges.

This led to some rather stunning views!

A quick stop in the hide overlooking the larger pool near the farmhouse revealed a few waterbirds to add further interest, with a Shelduck family with 9 humbug chicks, a Shoveler and a Curlew, one of the only breeding pairs in Pembrokeshire!

Soon though, our time was up, and we returned to North Haven to be picked up on our boat, sailing out among the rafts of seabirds to return to the real world!

What a place!

MB

The early comings of summer!

30/03/13

I had been looking forward to seeing my first summer migrants of the year, and on the Saturday evening following the gardening job we headed down to Upton Warren flashes in the hope of catching up with the first few LRP in the county this year.

We arrived, and it wasnt long after that i spotted two brown waders scurrying about on the mud, my first Little-ringed Plovers. I always love my first occurance with summer migrants, it just amazes me to think that these tiny birds, only around the size of a Chaffinch have flew thousands of miles to grace that small bit of mud in the middle of Worcestershire! It just amazes me. 4 Avocets were also 'new' for me.

25 Curlew, 1 OYC and a single Common Snipe were all showing.

Around 6pm, a birder in the hide called out that a Mediterranean Gull had just dropped into the roost, and on 'getting on' the bird i was treated to views of a stunning adult summer plumaged bird! This is seriously one belter of a bird!

This is the first view i got of the bird after it had just landed on one of the islands.

And it then moved slightly revealing those stunning bright white primarys!

We initially assumed the bird was the previous nights adult, as i had not personally seen the photos of the bird, but we attempted to read the code in the falling light. The red ring already indicative of a Polish origin, as can be seen though, the other BHG around the bird somewhat hindered viewing though!

Eventually i got a clear view of the ring, and upon inquiring about the ring number, indicated that this bird was a 'new one'. Red PNU4

It later emerged that PNU4 was previously seen at the Moors Pool a week or so previously, but had disappeared and had gone completely off the radar before returning back to UW.

MB

More Gull failing

16/02/13
Saturday afternoon is one of the worst days for Gull watching, but just on the off chance we decided to have a drop into Wildmoor Landfill in the hope that the Iceland Gull may be around. To cut a long story short it wasnt. A few Pied Wagtail were on the tip faces but there was not a single Gull at all. I was however greeted by this beautiful sight:

Moving on to Upton Warren in the hope of seeing a Jack Snipe we moved to the East hide, where only 5 Snipe were showing. 2 Oystercatcher were on the Islands, which were my first inland birds this year. A single Water Rail was showing to the left of the hide still and a Curlew was also showing on the waters edge.

We moved onward to the West hide in the hope of picking up a Bittern, We waited around for some time, but the bird failed to show. But that was more than compensated for when a ghostly BARN OWL drifted across the reeds at the north end of the pool. We were treated to decent views as the bird hunted the reedbeds around the causeway. We were treated to decent views as it gently flapped it's way around the north moors before after about 10 or so minutes fly off north to the fields, a stunning way to end the day.

MB

The Big Boost

4/01/13
A dawn check of the patch revealed that the drake Goosander was still roosting on the floods, which was a nice surprise, as my dad had failed to see it over the last week.
Moving southwards towards our eventual destination, we stopped off at Stourport Marina, looking for the Grey Seal that had been seen there, however we drew a blank. In compensation, a nice Finch flock of 40c Siskin and 5c Lesser Redpoll were showing in the riverside birches. Again, onwards, and my next report is from the River Avon at Bredon, where the river had flooded its banks, and in the flooded field viewable from the motorway, i saw a LITTLE EGRET perched in the water!
And again, onward! To our final destination, Slimbridge.

Upon getting to the Center  it was straight to the Tack Piece, as in winter it is by far my favorite area at Slimbridge. You can sit in one of the hides (Robbie Garnett being my preference) and simply scan through the masses for hours, my hope though was to catch up with the Spotted Redshank which was present, as it was a bird i missed last year. Upon reaching the small bridge over the pond at the start to the Holden Walkway, i saw a wintering CHIFFCHAFF! I dont see many wintering Chiffies, so it was nice to see one so early on in the year!
The very decent sized Wigeon flock (of over 1300 birds) was grazing  at multiple locations over the flooded field. However it was the wader flocks that had the majority of my attention. However, a stunning Little Egret grabbed my attention. Always a great bird to see, and one that i am glad to say is regular over southern Britain, soon to be followed by a wide range of other heron species from the continent surely?

Waders were very well represented, most notable were the Lapwings (2000c), Golden Plover (1000+) and Dunlin (700c). This alone counts as amazing birding for a midlander like me, but combined with smaller flocks of other species 60c Redshank and 50 Black-tailed Godwit, and at least 5 Ruff all combine for some excellent birding. 

After a while scanning, i picked up a 'pale' Redshank feeding near the Golden Plover flock, and when getting my scope on the bird, i had confirmed that i did indeed have the SPOTTED REDSHANK, Mission done, time to leave.....

Not really

I got down to trying to get some long distance pictures as the bird waded in shallow water around the Lapwings. Subtly distinctive in winter plumage, Spotshank is always a nice bird to catch up with. I did end up getting one decent photo from the lot, and a little bit of footage

To compare, one of its Common cousins was showing fairly close to the hide!

Having had our fill, we decided to move on, getting into the Holden Tower for high tide....

And it wasnt worth it in the slightest, a count of 120c Curlew, and about 1000 Wigeon were on the estuary  which almost the entire wader flock was flushed off the Tack piece and landed on the far edge of the Dumbles, feeding in the long grass. Both of these sites also had huge numbers of Pintail, with around 500 plastered over both areas! Similarly, Bewick Swans and White-fronted Geese were also in both areas.

Me moved down the the Rushy Pen, where we first spotted a 2w Common Gull. Note the almost entirely black primarys and the bill pattern.

 The stars of the show here though were the Pintail's, of which a few were showing exceptionally close to the hide! Sadly, they spent most of their time asleep  however, when they woke up. Wow! Look at these stunning ducks!

The drakes in particular are stunning!

Wow, nothing more to say!

We briefly stopped at the South Lake, where a large flock of Black-tailed Godwit was present!

Following this, it was onwards to the Zeiss hide for our annual dip on the Bittern. 3 Hours and there was no sign. However, a nice adult Water Rail was nice compensation, which shown regularly at the edge of the reeds, and very close.

It made a change to see one with the sun on it!

As always, i also took some footage.




A small number of the 173 White-fronted Geese were feeding on the seawall, with the estuary as a background.

As always, large numbers of Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler and Pintail were also on the flash here. And this activity meant we were treated t a great fly through of a brute of a female Peregrine!

With the day drawing to a close, we briefly stopped near the rowing area to drink our tea. And this proved a good decision, as a Cetti's Warbler was flitting about the reeds!
MB

17 MED GULLS!

22/08/12
Yes, that statement is true, although with some overlap surely, i have seen 17 Med Gulls ( In numbers of 1 ,9, 5, and lastly 2, which i will talk about now) this year alone at Upton Warren. WHAT A RUN!

Shannon,  'The Girlfriend' and her little sister, Lauren, accompanyed me to the reserve today to see what was about, so that i could teach them the 'ropes' of birding, to digiscope, and just generally a nice time out in the sun! (And proberbly a little bit of trying to keep me happy by going out birding)
Well, the sun was number 1 ticked off almost immidiatly, as it was bright and warm, a nice way to spend a chilled few hours down by the lake.

We had a hour and a bit, so i thought that the flashes would be the better choice, being more 'bird rich' at the moment and should be more productive.
Immidatly upon reaching the hide, i spotted the 2 BLACK-TAILED GODWIT's feeding at the back of the flashes. These birds showed that at least there was abit of wader passage going on, despite the passage verging on dire this year.
It was nice to get back to basics while out with the two girls, as i took time looking for species that i usually wouldnt, and spend time pointing them out, showing them through the scope, and describing why they were what they were.
Time was also spent learning Lauren to Digi-scope, which i must say, she picked up very quickly, and she got some very good shots of both the Curlew and the Lapwing's. Actually, really good for a first attempt. So, if you ever read this Lauren, Well done. It took me a hell of a long time to actually learn to Digi-scope, so to pick it up that quickly was an achievement!
I was also suprised by how good both of them were at picked out birds aswell, and, i must say, i was quite proud when Shan was correctly identifying Green and Common Sandpipers, and picking up the Godwits in flight, being chased by a LBBG!
Lucky for us. This ment that the Godwit's then landed quite close to the hide, and we were treated to some amazing views. The juvenile bird was stunning, in it's very fresh, bright orange plumage, so therefore presumably a bird of the 'islandica' race.

(Please click on the photo's for better viewing.)

 

As can be seen, the adult, in complete contrast, was a very scruffy looking bird, as you would expect. However, the bird was obviously moulting into winter plumage, as can be seen by the extensive grey hue's coming through.

 

For me though, the highlight was when i picked up a juvenile MEDITERRANEAN GULL flying in with a small party of BHG, the bird then proceeded to land at the back of the flashes with the flock, and i was able to show my favorite gull to them. Black tailed Godwit and Med Gull is a good couple fo have on a first birding trip!

 

 

 

After a few minuites however, i was suprised when i saw another MEDITERRANEAN GULL fly in with the BHG. I knew two had been seen together earlier, so i shouldnt have been too suprised, but a great sight, of what is still, not a common bird around here.

Here you can see both birds, both 1 in from each side, and both juveniles. One of the birds was wearing a red leg ring which read 'H5FO', which was found out to be a bird originating from Hungary! This bird had flew 1,100 miles east in just over 2 months since being ringed to be in front of us here at Upton, simply mindblowing if you ask me, 1000 miles at 2 months old!!

 

Lucky for us aswell, the unringed Med gull decided to move closer, and i was able to take some better pics.

 

Ive wanted to see a fresh juv for ages, and this is about as close as i will get without visiting a nesting site, as the bird had only just started moulting its scapulars.

 

Also of note was 10 Green Sandpipers, 3 Common Sandpipers, 20c Curlew and a brief Kingfisher that flew past on the way back to the carpark!

A nice visit, shared with my lovely obliging girlfriend and her sister :)

MB

 

 

Upton Warren- Roost Birding, Again

4/08/12
Altogether, again, a quite quiet roost, although numbers of Greeb Sandpiper were high, 17, which is a highly impressive count due to the lack of any serious wader passage this autumn.
However, i must say, it was waders that were the highlight of the night, 8 species of wader were on the flashes, including 8 Avocet, 4 LRP (Juv's), Lapwing (c50), 1 Dunlin, 17 Green Sandm 2 Common Sand, 23 Curlew, and this stunning SNIPE. The first one to have returned to Upton this year, and as usual with the migrant Snipe, it was very showy!

Common Snipe, are awsome birds!

It was nice to see LRP had fledged young from somewhere, as none of the 4 juvs were raised at Upton, after the dire breeding season many birds have had!
MB

Upton Warren- Waders

21/07/12
Upton Warren usually has some good birds about, not nessesarilly rare birds, but decent migrant birds, and that is exactly how this evening turned out, and we manadged to squeeze in a few hours to check on the 'new in' waders.

The Green Sandpiper's had now returned in decent numbers, with 8 counted dotted around the flashes. One of which was showing very well in the channel closest the hide, giving great views, as Green Sand's usualy do at this site!

With the very calm water, i decided to try some reflection shots on the Sandpipers.

 

And i took a little footage.

A single Common Sandpiper was also showing quite well, but as always with this species, was often very mobile around the flashes, so you had to be quick to anticipate where it would go. This species is less 'numerous' at Upton than Green Sand, and you dont usually get more than a few at once, which is a shame, because i love watching their 'bobbing' behaviour as they scuttle along the waters edge.

 

Unusually though, i was suprised when i heard the high pitched call of a Kingfisher, as i sped low over the water and landed on a perch below us! So unusual is this at Upton that it is the first i have ever seen actually on the flashes in about 4 years of visitng the place! Im guessing that the salinity of the pools are a cause for this absense, despite them being a regular sighting at the Moors Pool, the Sailing Pool, and along the Brook's and River. However, i took advantage of these amazing views:

 

Although being a fairly common bird at my 'local patches', Kingfisher is always a 'highlight species' when seen. You just have to look at it to see why. A stunning bird!

People are often suprised when i show them a Kingfisher as it sits in a riverside bush about how dull it looks in the shade, however, this one was in full sunlight! Check out those colours on this gorgeous male bird!

The Avocets were lingering around, and 6 birds were seen, again, dotted at various points in the flashes. A Little Ringed Plover was nice to see, after fleeing the site completly after the recent floods. A flock of 19 Curlew were showi

ng on the peninsular in front of the hide.

A pair of Little Owls were perched up on their usual farnhouse chimney.

 

A nice evening, one without rarities, but a nice selection of migrants, which if you ask me, are just as exiting!

MB

 

The Gann- Waders!!

4/06/12

Having completed our visit to our second site of the day, we then moved to another site nearby, one that i have never visited before, but one which often crops up with a few decent birds. I had 'scouted' the area on Google Maps (What an amazing tool) and was quite exited at the possibilites as 'The Gann' could produce, the habitat looked very good, and was only a small compact site, ideal for a quick visit!

The main reason for the visit to was to try and pick out some waders, however my hopes wernt exactly high as most waders would be back on breeding territory now.

Immidiatly upon arrival, a large flock of 48 Oystercather lazilly rested on the island within the pools. Infact, the largest flock of OYC ive seen!

There was a nice mix of plumages within the flock, ranging from 1st summers, non breeding adults, and breeding adults.

However, i was soon distracted by a multitude of Curlew calls as a flcok of 30 Waders took flight from rocks in the bay after being disturbed by walkers.

Closer and closer they flew, and i quickly latched onto 2 smaller waders within the flock. Still closer they flew, and as they neered, i was able to get a decent look at the smaller birds. Upturned bills, wedge up the back. RED!

BAR-TAILED GODWITS!

Awsome, immidiatly the stop in was worth it, and i enjoyed crippling in flight views of these waders, one which is fairly hard to get on a year to year basis with my lack of coastal birding, hoping from an inland straggler.

The birds moved closer, and i was able to get a couple of snaps of the flock as it flew around, over and over, trying to land on the pools, but comtinually being disturbed by further walkers.

A few WHIMBREL were also in the flock, one of which is highlighted in the photo below.

And here is a size comparison between a Curlew, and one of the Barwits (Presumably a female)

In total, 6 WHIMBREL were in the bay area of the Gann, flying to and fro between the Sea and the small river estury, calling frequently, which allerted us to their presence as they flew past.

It was only now however, that we noticed that the pebbly beach in front of us had a small gathering of small waders on it!

There certainly was more waders about than i was expecting!

A DUNLIN took close company with a pair of RINGED PLOVER (My first for the year!), which shown incredibally well on the shoreline. Infact, the closest views ive had without being in a hide!

The gathering preformed brilliantly, and allowed for some photos and videos.

 I particuarly like the two above photos due to the 'mirroring' pose of the birds and the differential focus on the birds!

It was great just to be able to sit on the beach, watching these birds with the calling of Herring Gulls and the Sea lapping up the shore. Welcome to the seaside ladies and gents!

I tried to get a photo with a breaker wave coming in behind the bird, and this is all i managed!

The seaweed on the shore obviously held lots of food for them, as they spent much of their time picking from among it. Presumably feeding up on way to return to breeding territory.

The Summer plumaged DUNLIN kept very close company to the Ringed Plovers, and this too, allowed for some great views!

Again, i like this photo, and personally think its one of the best Dunlin photos ive taken!

And a bit of short video footage.

All in all, a very nice visit, and a great little spot to check out, another place to add to my list of places to go next year!

MB