A sunny start with lightish N to NW wind. Overcast by mid afternoon, but remained dry till late evening, when the rain started.
Middleton Nature Reserve
Ringing session summary from Pete
Bit of a shock this am with a ‘dark’ bird with a well defined white supercilium half hidden in the shade of a blackthorn. It came out a bit further and obviously a solitary grounded redwing. The supercilium contrasted with really indistinct malar and general smudged darkness of the breast feathers with quite a broad ‘pectoral band’. Overall dark and heavily streaked/smudged on the underparts. I would go for coburni, the Icelandic form.
Other stuff included another unringed Cetti’s, migrant Robins prominent and a handful of chiffchaff, meadow pipit, Reed bunting on the move.
Detailed report from Jean:
Blue skies made vis invisible unless the birds called or flew low enough but we winkled out the following:
0700-1100
Swallow 2
Grey Wagtail 8
Pink-footed Goose 470 in 5 flocks
Meadow Pipit - 4 seen but 8 caught so probably in double figures
Dunnock 6
Reed Bunting 5
Chaffinch 2
Goldfinch - a flock of 8
Jackdaw 6
Raven 1
REDWING 1
Ringing:
New birds
Cetti’s Warbler 1
Meadow Pipit 8
Grey Wagtail 4
Reed Bunting 3
Chiffchaff 4
Robin 4
Goldcrest 2
Long-tailed Tit 5
Blue Tit 1
Great Tit 1
Dunnock 2
Wren 1
Retraps:
Blue Tit
Janet took these shots late morning:
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| Heron, leaving its favoured fishing spot on the main pond |
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| Male Migrant Hawker |
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| Male Common Darter |
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| Speckled Wood |
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| The Alder Leaf beetles, continue to wreak havoc |
South shore - high water 13:30
I just had a stroll along the sea wall towards high water (MD)
Wigeon 5 feeding out from the covered saltmarsh
Eider 1 between the outflows
Mediterranean gull 1 adult flew west after resting on sea beyond the saltmarsh
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| Mediterranean gull The faux castle in the background marking the southern boundary of the recording area |
Linnet 22 around saltmarsh
Starlings c150 around saltmarsh
Common Snipe 1 along foreshore, presumably flushed from saltmarsh
Rock Pipit 2 (Red Nab and Lighthouse)
A nice selection of waders remained on the last rocks at Red Nab, making for easy viewing.
Ringed Plover c30
Dunlin c25
Redshank 8
Turnstone 6
This clip includes all the above species
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| Curlew, bracing itself against an incoming wave |
Sanderling - later, Alan Physick saw one on Red Nab when the tide was even higher!
And the rarest of all sightings, a gull on No.2 outflow superstructure (birds hardly ever rest here, it is assumed the vibrations are not good!)
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| Black-Headed gull on No.2 outflow |
