Gulling with local birder's

17/02/13
Local Redditch birder Neil Duggan had kindly offered an evening out at the biggest Gull roost in the region, at Chasewater, and Matt G the Ealswood Birder and i tagged along in the hope of jamming in on some of that White winger action, and checking a few of the nearby Gulling sites in the hope of picking something up.

We were meeting at Upton Warren, and i got there early to have a check of the Flashes. A Lapwing flock was commuting between the fields and the 2nd flash, making it awkward to get a decent view from the feeder hide. Upon exiting the hide i was watching 2 Goldcrest in a trackside bush when Matt walked down the path towards me that he'd just had a Golden Plover in the Lapwing flock! We moved back into the feeder hide and started scanning the Lapwings at the back of the flash, and there it was, a Golden Plover sitting among them! We watched it walking around in the flock before taking flight and giving us some nice views. Cue a digi-scoped record shot.

Heading north, we first dropped into the West Midlands gull hotspot of Stubbers Green which was practically devoid... A few Great Black Backs and Lessers. Errr, not the best of starts.

It was still some time until the roost, so we then headed over to my new found Gulling spot, at Kingswood lakeside. At least we had Gulls this time! But again it seemed out luck wasn't there, as in the flock were only the expected Herring, LBBG and BHG. Scanning the Gulls flying up above the tip i got exited when i saw a Gull with white wing tips circling with about 10 other Gulls. Sadly however, it didn't seem to be one of the true white wingers. Despite having obvious white wingtips, the had a fairly dark grey 'saddle' on its back, obviously wrong for either of the hoped for species. The bird was at some distance however, but in good light we agreed to call it as an abbarent gull sp.

A lot of the birds were staring to fly over to Chasewater so we decided to follow in the hope we would have more luck there, and then it just got worse. The birds had obviously decided to pitch up at the furthest reaches of the Reservoir, right at the north end, making viewing from the south end almost impossible.

2 Goldeneye were showing fairly well

As was this Common Gull

A adult MEDITERRANEAN GULL was picked out of the closest large flock of BHG at the end of the dam. A stunning 90 % summer plumaged bird, with bright white primary's and an almost fully black hood. If you ask me, one of the most stunning of the small Gulls, and probably one of my favorites!

As the light got worse, i picked up another adult MED Gull, this time a winter plumaged bird, which i believe Neil got onto, but quickly disappeared within the flock (A very common occurrence at Gull roosts). These two alone made my day as it was the one Gull that i had missed on previous roosts this year, so it was nice to have caught up with two of them!

Going back onto the large Gulls they had still failed to move any closer. A adult Yellow legged Gull was showing in the birds in front of the sailing club but that's as good as it got. Many birder's didn't even bother to stay around as they knew the task was almost impossible. But the three of us soldiered on until dark, with absolutely no reward. The day got even worse later that night when news emerged on what the gullers had seen from the west shore.

So yeah, not the most 'to plan' day you could have had, and it is a real shame that we didn't pick up any white wingers, as at the time any would have been lifers for my companions. Sorry i couldn't get you them, i'll just have to owe you a repeat visit so we can get them!

MB

GullWatch Failing

15/02/13
An Iceland Gull had been found near Bromsgrove, so biting the bullet i decided to hit the roost at Bartley. And it turned out to be the correct decision, as the bird turned up in the roost just prior to our arrival. Once getting to the Scotland lane viewpoint however i was told that after a few minutes the bird had flown and hadn't been relocated, and that was how it remained throughout the evening vigil, and the bird wasn't seen again.

MB

Gulls, Gulls everywhere..........

16/10/10

upton warren

the PEC had left us but we was in for a huge treat, we had missed a whooper swan at the warren but turned up anyway for the roost..

an adult YELLOW LEGGED GULL was quickly spotted and i got a short film.

but very quickly i noticed that large numbers on large gulls were dropping onto the deck on the flashes. the flock grew and grew as more and more birds piled in from the SW ( westwood pool???) the flocks of 20-100 were constantly dropping down between c7pm and dark, and just before we left i estimated an amazing 3000c gulls ( 2000 large, 1000 small) had decended upon the flashes

this video shows right at the limet of what i can take in that light, and remeber more gulls dropped in after this video was taken.

being the gull fanatic i am, i was scopeing through the flock all night, with great results.

10+ YELLLOW LEGGED GULL ( 2 1st win, 8 adult)

40c common gull

150c H gull (mostly immature)

1800c LBBG (mostly adult) ( including an intermedius race bird)

1000c BHG,

all i could say was what a spectacle at such a small place...

2 Green sand

27 Curlew

8 Snipe

MB

BLOGGERS DAY OUT!

hey im the first to get this out
12/12/09.

richards and martyns take on the day can be viewed here soon, well maybe.(just click on respective name)

for me it was a bloody early get up, 6AM for me to get ready and have breakfast and all that usual stuff.

i was picked up by martyn at 7:15 and we were on our way to stubbers green.

we got out the car and walked towards the lake in FREEZING cold weather.it was really cold,a small flock of lapwing was flying around 'wheezing' in the cold conditions(even they had colds). we were soon joined by another birder from birdfourum,rob who was also waiting for the caspian. a female goosander flew over hinting at what was to came,soon after the gulls started pilleing onto the lake,but the first large gull we saw was up the top end of the lake by the sailing club, it was flying about but imidiatly looked good, we changed our position and the gull was on a boyd. it was the CASPIAN GULL(lifer 200),i was happy to have got my 200th lifer and i celerbrated by,well, by looking at the caspian. here's a film in low mouring light.

and a GBBG

this video shows a few caspian features,eg the long straw coloured legs,protruding breast,small head and dark eye,in flight it was also easily identifiable,with its broken tail band with almost aall black primarys with black running to its elbow,and as the bird shown just 15 mins into the trip it was a great start.

also here was a load of common gulls(10c)

after some time looking for a yellow leg failed but 13 greater black backs were nice to see as was about 8 goosander(including fly overs) and a little grebe. not much later we were joined by richard and he got a few pics of the caspian, more scanning of the flock produced just the usual species.then the pagers started bleeping away,'90 pink footed goose over uttoxeter with a bewicks on the lake' '100 pink foots over ingestre' '85 pink foots over berry hill fields'

so, time to head north..........

...... to chasewater

we pulled into the car park in search of an adult med gull, we walked to the lake( keep calling it a lake cause i cant spell resivior) scanned the gulls and mart said got the med gull,it wasent long before i was on a crisp,beatiful,white winged mediterranian gull,a stunner of a gull,with its blood red bill and legs glowwing in the sunshine(yes it was sunny).

so how about that beauty,what about this tired film of it yawning,lazy thing.

we spent some time scanning the lake for anything,but then right in the distance,just above the horizon we saw........

.....NOTHING absolutly nothing

well anyway back to the med gull,what a beutiful looking bird they are,they always raise you spirits everytime you see one:

we then decided to check the south shore,a big raft of goldeneye was diving just offshore,and martyn pointed out a few shovler and gadwall forther out on the lake,and as upton warren doesent hold goldeneye too oftern i decided to take the opp to get some pics and films:

a good count of 56 great c grebes were out on the water.

richard wanted to get the whinchat at tamworth and i did too (secretly) so after a bit we carried on to tameside NR.

well this was the easiest of the lot to get,it was simple. we parked up,crossed the road up the bank and there it was, im not kidding it was that easy. but saying this the bird did fly around a lot,but then remained perched on a twig or a tree for quite long periods of time. this site loks amazing, the stuff you could imagine turning up there would make your mouth water,and all this in the centre of tamworth next to a main road bordered by house, unbelievable. and although the lake was quite small there were a good range of waterbirds,13 lapwing,3 snipe,8 wigeon and 4 gadwal,as well as 2 chiffchaff. why cant it be like this on lickhill(although lickhill has a few suprises,see next post),

(its on the twig in the centre if your wondering)

after a very enjoyable time with the whinchat we decided to go looking for the smew at fishers mill.but to put it short,we dipped, after a seeingly very long walk we reached the pits,to be honest the habitat was and looked amazing,no wonder the glossy ibis(s) decided to tur up here,it looked very mediteranian(if you subtract the very muddy paths), goldeneye seemed to be everywhere,with 10c noted on the lakes, on the northermost lake 2 redshank were feeding and 4 shelduck were resting,between 2 lakes in scrubby areas were a pair of stonechat.this compleating the pair of 'common' chats in a day. they preformed superbly and for once i looked more at these birds than at the lake:

a common gull was seen to land with a few black heads,on the way back martyn pisshed out a chiffchaff,which shown quite well, a bullfinch was heard(one was seen and heard briefly and the way down as was treecreeper), so now onwards on upwards,driving through prime merlin habitat(non were seen) we stumbled on a small flock of only 190!!! mute swan. we pulled over and had a quick scan though,but no wild swans were seen :(

croxall pool was our next destination,and in my terms it was a great desision. this was only to be a quick in and out stop but a quite big flock of ducks up the far end got us investigating, half way up the path we stopped and scanned.i was scanning a flock of wigeon and tufties and then i panned onto a small goose. PINK FOOTED GOOSE i calmly said. the others quickly got onto it and i was praised by my discovery. and with the big movement of pink feet over this area earlier this bird was WILD!! even martyn said it was wild(could i please have it in writing as its not oftern you say a goose on its own is wild) this bird proberbly has the best credentials to be a wild bird so im happy.

throughout the time the bird was watched it was wary of the canadian geese giving it even better credentials.

but it wasent long and the bird done this:

it flew north and wasent seen again.this was the ONLY bird i saw before anybody else over the whole trip,so i am very happy with it. but here it was not only the pink footed goose, there was also a huge winter flock of 33 redshank,33 redshank,thats an amazing total for winter in the middle of stafordshire.the usual ducks were presant including 8 goldeneye 8 wigeon but a female pintail was a bonous.

a check of a lake not far from here didnt produce much but a little egret flew over and there was 2 shelduck, in the surrounding fields was a flock of fieldfare/redwing and also a load of goldfinch.

then it was back to chasewater for the gull roost from the south shore,by this time my scope was useless and i relied on martyns and richards scopes to look through,the adult med gull was again picked up quite quickly, the roost size was huge but was still increasing,i estimated about 10000 birds rooseted on the lake,proberbly more:

the flock covered the res. from side to side, 3 yellow legged gulls were picked out by martyn but apart from a couple of possibles we failed to locate the caspian gulls. even without any 'white wingers' or caspains the sheer spectacle of that amount of gulls is a fitting end to any day..

what a blast of a day today was,with great company and great birds, so all i can say is.....

whens the next one?

thks to martyn and richard for the invite

MB