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

Mediterranean at the Warren

29/06/13
Sitting in the West hide, a very faded looking 1st summer MEDITERRANEAN GULL flew in and landed upon one of the islands. Wanting to get some photos, we then headed towards the East hide, where, despite the oncoming sun, we should be closer to the bird.
After some wait, the Med emerged from behind a tussok, but the back lighting was dredful.

 

As i said, a very tatty bird, as you would expect a Med to look in late June, with very worn tertials, secondarys and Primarys. In flight this led to a very bleached pattern where the black markings on the upperwing were faded.

Also here was a Gadwall with 7 chicks, 3 Teal a Pochard,6 Common Terns and a Cetti's Warbler calling.

Moving down onto the Flashes, one of the LRP broods had hatched, and a single chick was running around accomponied with its parent.

Also great to see was the return of Green Sandpiper to the flashes, with 2 being present in the many channels around the pools

MB

Another Big Worcs day.

2/02/13
An early morning visit onto the patch revealed that the drake Goosander was still roosting on floods, sleeping on one of the small islands.
Moving onwards, we moved to Eyemore Wood, looking for a certain species, and they didn't prove too hard to see. I was quite surprised however to find the entire flock of CROSSBILL completely silently feeding on larch seeds adjacent to the road. Usually, you can hear the 'Glip' call while trying to locate them. A few local birders appeared soon after. Of the 12 Crossbill that were present, there was at least 3 stunning red males.
The males birds in particular are absolutely gorgeous birds, i mean just look at them!

Saying that however, the bright green females are great aswell!

Not wanting to spend to long here we then headed to Grimley Pits, to have another look at the female Smew, which had been joined by a 1st winter drake!

We arrived at the north end to be greeted with largely silhouetted views of the hundreds of waterbirds. I scanned the middle section, and after some scanning i picked up the female SMEW, only briefly however, and after getting my dad a look at it through my scope, it duly disappeared! In the time being though, we were treated to views of a female Goldeneye. There was also small flocks of Gadwall, Teal and Shoveler, with larger numbers of both Pochard and Tufted Duck.

Following this, we then moved to the south end of Camp lane pits, in the hope of picking out the Smew's in better light, and after a while scanning, i picked out the female bird as it swam and dived further to the north. Very soon after, the bird was joined by the 1st winter drake SMEW. Both birds then sailed around the pool, and we were treated to decent, if fairly distant views! From this new viewpoint, i also clocked onto 3 Goldeneye (2 adult fem, 1 juv).

Infact, the birds were so distant i couldn't even be bothered to get any video footage, combined with the fact that the wind was buffeting my scope like crazy! It really was windy!

So we moved onward.
I haven't had Jack snipe this year, so we headed to Upton Warren Moors pool in search of the long staying, occasionally 'showing well' bird. The lake itself was fairly quiet, so much concentration went onto scanning the edges of Amy's marsh and the track to the left of the hide. This was rewarded fairly quickly when a Water Rail strode into view.
 

A second bird joined soon after, and they had a brief fight before moving away from each other. With the light now rapidly dropping, and having only seen 20c Common Snipe, i went back into Snipe mode, and on my final scan of the evening, there it was! A JACK SNIPE perched in the shallow water on the 'boat peninsular' opposite the hide. I quickly got my scope onto the bird, and pulled out the camera. While doing so, the bird began to bathe in the shallows, and i was able to get footage of the interesting behavior!




Once the Jack had moved back into the Reeds, it wasn't long until we decided to end the day and head home.

All in all a good days birding, Crossbills, Smews, Goldeneyes and Jack Snipe, as well as fairly decent views of Water rail! Not a bad way to spend a early February day in Worcestershire!
MB

Some short ones.

29/09/12
An evening visit to Upton Warren was rather quiet, 3 Gadwall (2m) were the only birds of note at the Moors Pool, so we headed down to the flashes where it did liven up some more. A further 5 Gadwall (3m) were here. A little Owl was showing on the barn roof, and 3 Green Sandpipers were still in attendence. An eclipe drake Wigeon was feeding on the peninsular in front of the hide. 9+ Snipe were also feeding out in the open in the shallow water.

 

30/09/12

Further vismig on the patch reaped rewards today, with my first FIELDFARE of the autumn, which flew over south calling, following the river. Im not sure of how many September Fieldfares ive had!

24 Meadow Pipit also flew over, 23 flying south, and one oddball which decided it wanted to fly north!

A crazy single flock of 8 Grey Wagtail flew over, agian in a southerly direction.

2 Linnet flew north, But the highlight was a Snipe, which i picked up while viewing a distant Buzzard. It circled distantly for around a minuite, before flying off to the north.

MB

Marloes Mere- Ibis takeover

4/06/12

After a seemingly eternal drive from Strumble Head to the small village of Marloes, we soon pulled into the car park, On arrival in the National Trust car park, we paid our fee and headed down to the 'barbed wire gate' which has been mentioned hundreds of times as i check about news of a flock of special birds which had been present for months!

On the way down though, we were met by this rather appealing (grusome?) image of a cluster of 'The Lackey' moth catapillars, which certainly made for a change. I was actually quite appealed to these, their bright colours obviously to warn off predators!

Continuing on, walking through a rather picturesque landscape, we soon came to the 'barbed wire gate', and after a quick scan around, our quiry was located, a flock of 3 GLOSSY IBIS!

As can be seen from the photo, they wernt exactly very showy while we were there, and the birds often only gave glimpses amongst the tussoks. Rather a dissapointment considering the views/Photos/Video that Jason K from Shenstone Birder had a few weeks previously (Here)

 These birds have been giving me constant nightmares since april, and i was glad to have seen them. They (twice) flew over to Ireland to visit Tacumsluin (Or however its spelt) and gave me fears they wouldnt come back, but the week before we were due to go over to wales, the birds returned, and as can be seen, Stuck around a little longer for me! So thankyou Glossy Ibis's.

The flock consisted of 3 birds, a very colourful adult, which was absolutly stunning! Another adult, although slightly duller (and alot less showy), and an immature type, which still had white spotting on its head, and less of a 'glossy' look.

My first 'real' view out in the open (ish) was of this aformentioned immature bird.

But my main goal was to try to get soemething on that really glossy bird, and slowly but surely, it slowly (and i do mean very slowly!) worked it way through the tussoks to give great scope views. Annoyingly though, the tussocks were the downfall of all my photos, and i could never correctly focus on the bird as it always focused on tussoks in front of the bird, however, here are my attempts.

We then decided to move away from the bird for abit, as they were making very slow progress towards us. We headed up to the hide, where we sat for a while, A few Shoveler and a Gadwall were on the mere.
Time passed, and we didnt pick out anything, so walked back towards the Gate, noting a Common Blue Buttefly on the way. I looked up and noticed a Gannet flying over north! I shouted it out to my dad, and it was only then that i remembered that we were only a few hundered metres from the sea here.

Arriving back with the Glossy Ibis's, we noted that the colourful bird had walked in closer, and i started snapping away again!

The bird's were right bastards tbh, and only very briefly walked out between the tussoks, further hindering my chances of a decent photo. However, after a decent amount of time. one of the birds appeared in full view, at reasonable range, and i just blast fired photos, just in the vain hope of getting one decent photo. 

YEP! It still didnt work! So with us now being very Knat bitten, and suffering from mild sunstroke, we decided to retreat.
However, a quick video of the adult bird was needed!
Awsomeness.
Great bird!


These final 2 were proberbly the best photos i got though, but again, there are many 'faults' with them (No1 being too dark as my camera slipped from my lens when i took the photo, leading to slight vignetting around the bird, and No 2 the obvious downside being its facing away, despite it being the sharpest photo)

Anyway, they were great birds to see. With them being in summer plumage, and having only seen one bird previously (The 1w bird at Grimley) it made a nice learning trip (even though one wasnt needed for such a stunning, unmistakable bird)

However, that still wasnt enough, and we then switched to another nearby site.....

MB

Return to Upton Warren

3/03/12
A large debadical had been seen at upton over the winter, for a few issues, so i stayed away, added to also by the fact that the Bitterns did not return!
However, after only a couple of visits over the winter, it was good to be back at the warren today to see some Upton specialities! and also to 'Twitch' the new hide!

Starting at the Moors, i saw a flock of Cormorants, and in that flock was a 'Sinensis' race bird, check out that 90' angle!

2 Oystercatcher were also here, but otherwhys it was quiet, so i walked through the education reserve to the flashes. Where i saw my target birds.

The AVOCET's have returned!

It was great to see and hear them again after such a long winter for many of the 'Uptonites'

A Lapwing was showing quite nicely also!

I stayed untill dark, and got to see th Avocets trying to roost. I say trying becacuse they were constantly harassed by BHG's.

However, i was also treated to some amazing views of a pair of Teal and a pair of Gadwall!

MB

Its another patch 1st

7/03/10
yes,
yet another patch 1st,
i bet your getting bored with this now arnt you
well im not

this time it wasent an unexpected visitor, 14 great crested grebe on larford lake's (viewed from opposite side of river), a patch 1st simply because i had never really had a look at the place, a few were in summer plumage.
i even walked past the place which held the red backed shrike a few years ago(gut wrenching pain, but moveing swiftly on, not one comment on this bird please, pritty please)

4 tufted duck were on the lakes (3 DRK) which is a also quite uncommon on the patch with only 1 record of a pair on 1st june '07',
the drake gadwall was still holding teritory on redpoll lake, but has yet to find a female and make history...............
3 goldcrest were showing well at lincome lock, a grey wagtail was on a factory roof near the stourport marina and a total of 8 stock dove were located.....
MB

GADWALL

28.02.10
gawall still on redpoll lake
3 nuthatch at blaclstone feeders
MB

Back to the patch!

16/02/10
couldent resist
redpoll lake was calling........
gadwall looked so settled.........


lets GO..............

the day played out quite well. a visit to scan the regular chaffinch flock that frequents a hedgerow at the vismig field produced dividends.
REED BUNTING X2 (m+f)
a pair of reed buntings fed alongside the chaffinch and a lone male bullfinch, though a search for a brambling failed(more on this flock later, and my plans)
2 STOCK DOVE continue to hold teratory at an undisclosed area of lickhill........
a RAVERN flew over,
then i was at the redpoll lake and it was still there.......







the gadwall continued to show superbly, and now, with my tripod, i was able to take a sturdier film.......



a spent 20 mins watching the GADWALL and scanning the birches untill 7 LESSER REDPOLL flew in, landing for c1 min, than flew off north(ish)

MB

and my plans for the edge of the vismig field, i am trying to get permission to 'bait' the edge of the field, perticularly in harsh conditions, to attract more finches/ buntings onto the site, and to help them survive the winter, the area is frequented by, goldfinch, greenfinch, stock dove, chaffinch, song and mistle thrush, as well as fieldfare and redwing.
scarce birds have in the past included- brambling- yellowhammer- tree sparrow and corn bunting
but this is still just an idea and needs to be confirmed, lets hope........

Another rare anatini !!!!!!

vocab- anatini- dabbling duck

and back to the patch
14/02/10
my dad decided to join me for the second half of my patch trip today, so i was off to blackstone on my own, the buzzards were perched in the hedgeline again, giving great scope views.

the marsh tit didnt take too much finding, following me up 40m of path to the feeders, here i left the bird alone, the wigeon hadent lingered(as was expected), 4 skylark were singing in the riverside fields, and this beauty kept me company on the river:

female goosander

the stock doves were again on their perch in the vismig field and a bullfinch was with the chaffinch flock,

i stopped off to have a drink and pick up my dad and then we continued to the redpoll lake, hopeing for redpoll, and guess what, there wasent any redpoll, oh well.

we carried on around the small reed fringed pool and a duck swan out from the reeds 3 metres from us, fully expecting it to be a mallard, i raised my bins, and there sticking out like a sore thum was a black arse,

'GADWALL'

DRAKE GADWALL ON THE PATCH

it swam into a channel leading to the main area of lake and we rushed over there, and this is what greeted us.

a full adult drake GADWALL, swimming and feeding blisfully, OMG, the second mega duck in 2 weeks, the bird was extremly relaxed in its setting and didnt showb any signs of being uncomfortable, it wasent even bothered by 5 noisy kids playing 10 m away on the park, after about 15 mins the bird swam back onto the small area and we decided to leave it to itself.

we lesurly walked all the way downriver to an area that looks over larford lakes, i had a quick scan, but nothing materialised, 3 stock doves were singing and nuthatches were calling, so with little else about we headed back up to the gadwall. and it was still there showing well about 3m away, though swimming away from us. we first located the bird at 12:30 and presuambly stayed for the rest of the day, and hopefully may stay for some time as the bird is relaxed

MB