Back on the Patch - August 2014

I had a couple of hours spare this morning and so headed down to Curbridge for a spot of patch birding. As I got out of the car and headed down the track towards the river I noticed an odd shaped raptor with pale underparts circling, and a second raptor beneath it. I quickly got my bins onto the top bird and to my surprise it was a Honey Buzzard, which was being seen off by a Common Buzzard. I had the wrong lens on my camera, plus the bird was back lit and distant, but I managed to get a record shot. The distinctive pigeon shaped head and bulging secondaries are evident in this photo, and the large gap between the outermost bar and the next suggest that this bird was a male.

Honey Buzzard

I continued on down to the river, checking the meadow for grasshoppers and crickets on the way. Meadow, Field and Common Green grasshoppers were abundant and nearer the river Short-winged Conehead nymphs were present. The tide was just dropping so gulls and waders were starting to appear. At first there were just a couple of Herring Gulls, and around 20 Black-headed Gulls, but as the water levels dropped a Lesser Black-backed and several Mediterranean Gulls dropped in. The Meds were of mixed ages, juveniles, 2nd summer and adult, all of them were in moult to some degree and some were now almost in their winter plumage. 

Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls plus Little Egret and Canada Geese 

The Black-heads too were moulting and the last remnants of their brown (I know odd name but there you go!) summer hoods was just about visible. The best place to stand and watch the gulls is usually at the northern end of the estuary, by the sewage works; as the tide drops they gather their to bath. Unfortunately there were a few kayakers on the river today so the birds were finding it difficult to settle.

Black-headed Gull moulting out of its summer plumage

There were three Little Egrets feeding along the waters edge, and a young Shelduck flew past and headed upstream. Three Curlew suddenly appeared, presumably from the roost down stream as did a single Greenshank. I have been seeing two Greenshank on the estuary for a while now so I guess the other one will be around somewhere.

Common Greenshank and Black-headed Gull

I picked up a Kingfisher sat on a fallen tree. I had been hearing them call but had struggled to pick one up, from the sounds of it there were two birds present but I couldn't find the other. A flock of 70 Starlings was quite notable and potentially evidence of a good breeding season, and Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Blue and Great Tits were all present in the woods.

Common Kingfisher - Curbridge

The numbers and diversity of butterflies was quite poor with Peacock, Small White, Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper the only species recorded. Just as I was about to leave a Banded Demoiselle flew past, which was an interesting record for the site.

Patch Birding at Curbridge - July 2014

After my visit to the Black Redstarts I stopped off at Curbridge for a spot of patch birding. By early July there can often be small numbers of waders present, which are probably failed or non-breeders. The tide was out, but coming in and so I walked along the creek from the Horse and Jockey end. There were a few Black-headed Gulls, four Little Egrets, Common Moorhen, Mute Swan and several Mallards, including one duck with about 10 recently hatched chicks. As I approached the main estuary I spotted a couple of Common Greenshanks and two distant Eurasian Curlews.

The greenshanks were both adult birds, which would be expected this time of year. They are very obvious to tell from juveniles by the heavily streaked and spotted upper breast and their broad and more rounded scapulars. The two birds were roosting on the waters edge directly at the mouth of the creek and therefore I was able to creep up and get some great views.

Adult Common Greenshank - Curbridge

Adult Common Greenshank - Curbridge

Adult Common Greenshank - Curbridge

After I had finished watching the greenshanks I turned my attention to the rest of the estuary. There were a further six Little Egrets, around 70 Black-headed Gulls and two Eurasian Curlew. Scanning over the mud I picked up two adult Oystercatchers and a chick. Interestingly the chick was still flightless and given that it was on a piece of mud that is totally covered at high tide, it will be interesting to see where it goes. 

Oystercatcher with chick - Curbridge

At the far end of the estuary I suddenly noticed a tern feeding over the water. It is not that uncommon to see Common Terns this far up the River Hamble, but this bird was an adult Sandwich Tern, which I must admit I don't recall having seen before. It didn't come very close but I still managed to grab a record shot before it turned around and headed back down the river. 

Adult Sandwich Tern - Curbridge

The only other bird of note was a roosting Lesser Black-backed Gull, so with time pressing on I headed back to the car. On the way back my attention was drawn to a large orange butterfly which turned out to be a Silver-washed Fritillary, my first of the year. Unfortunately I only had my long telephoto with me and was unable to get a photo.

Colour-ringed Godwits at Manor Farm Country Park - April 2014

This morning I nipped down to Manor Farm Country Park to check out the route in preparation for my dawn chorus walk there next Sunday, 27th April. It was a fine day and the park was busy, with out of control dogs everywhere. Fortunately my walk starts at 5am so there shouldn't be too many people around then. After sussing the route I headed down to the River Hamble to check out the intertidal on the rising tide, there had been a recent report of an Iceland gull further up river so I was also hoping for that. A couple of whimbrel were the first I had seen on the patch this year, as were a small flock of black-tailed godwits. Initially there were five birds, with one colour-ringed individual; I didn't have my scope and unfortunately couldn't work out the combinations so I quickly headed back to the car. When I returned there were seven birds, three of which were colour-ringed.

A good mate of mine, Pete Potts has been studying godwits for many years, and birds are colour-ringed in Iceland, the UK and I believe Portugal. These birds seemed to have different types of colour combinations which could suggest that they have been ringed in different locations, or are part of different schemes. In addition I could not see a metal ring on any of the birds, which could also suggest that they have not been ringed in the UK.

This bird had four colour rings - orange over black or right tibia, orange on
left tibia and red on left tarsus

This bird had white over white, with the letters A9 on the right tibia, orange
over white on the white tibia and red on the left tarsus

This bird had red on the right tibia, green on the left tibia and another
ring on the left tibia. It was difficult to decipher this ring but I think it is a
discoloured white ring but it may be yellow

I tried to contact Pete but he was away for the weekend. Hopefully he will be able to give me their history, but I will submit the details to the BTO too, and let you know once I have found out.

More Mediterranean Gulls on the Patch - April 2014

Mediterranean Gulls are a familiar sight for me these days on the patch. They were once a rare winter visitor in Hampshire, with birders travelling to the same traditional site just to get them on their year list. As time moved on they became more regular and now it is a species that breeds in Hampshire in reasonable numbers. This week there have been good numbers feeding in the horse grazed fields, and with the lighter evenings, I have had time to go and watch them after work.

Med Gulls have a very distinctive mewing call that will often make you aware of their presence, although this time of year the jet black hood and white wings make them stand out from a crowd. This week there has been a flock of about 100 gulls feeding on the local pasture, with a peak of 40 of them being Med Gulls. All of the birds present have been adults, identified by their pure white wing tips with the only black being the leading edge of the outer primary. They were mostly were paired up and were very vocal calling to each other constantly.

Two adult Mediterranean Gulls

Two adult Mediterranean Gulls - note the thin black line on the leading
edge of outer primary on the first bird

Three adult Mediterranean Gulls - all birds in full adult summer plumage

Adult Mediterranean Gull (right) with adult Black-headed Gull (left) -
note the white leading edge to the primaries on the Black-head and the dark
underside to the primaries. A stark contrast to the adult Med Gull

Adult Mediterranean Gull, with full black hood, white wings and red legs and bill

Adult Mediterranean Gull (left) and adult Black-headed Gull (Right) - note
the full black hood of the Med Gull but the incomplete brown hood of the Black-
head, that does not extend down the back of the head and the neck.

Birding without all my senses - April 2014

The last couple of weeks has proven to be a somewhat frustrating time which started with a heavy cold and led on to ten days with significant hearing loss. For most of the time I was house bound, but this last weekend I decided that I would venture out for some fresh air. Not wishing to travel far, I decided to start with a spot of patch birding and soon found out just how difficult it was to bird with very limited hearing.

I travelled to Botley Wood and could just about hear a common chiffchaff singing about three metres away, finding it, without any sense of direction proved to be even more difficult. I continued along the main track and was rewarded with very little, other than a wren, song thrush and the resident blue and great tits, but it was tough going. Fortunately, the warm spring sunshine made it ideal conditions for raptors. At least seven common buzzards were enjoying the thermals and sparring with each other.

Common Buzzard

The sparring buzzards took my mind off my deafness and as I tried to get some photos I noticed a common raven in amongst them. There has been a pair loitering in the area in recent weeks; this bird was making it very clear that they were still around, and they didn't like the buzzards being there.

Common Raven with two Common Buzzards

The expansion of the common buzzard in the UK has been one of the avian success stories of recent years. Unfortunately its success has been met with anger from the gamekeeping fraternity and there are increasingly regular reports of persecution. The aerial sparring between the buzzards and raven kept me occupied for a while, but they soon got bored with each others attention and drifted off.

Peacock Butterfly

The warm spring conditions were proving ideal for butterflies too. Brimstones were the most abundant with the bright yellow males patrolling the woodland edge. Peacocks too were fairly abundant, seeking out the blackthorn flowers to feed. I recorded two other species on the day, comma and an unidentified small white, which vanished before I could make out whether it was a green-veined or small white.

Great Crested Newt egg - This species is protected under European law
and therefore it is an offence to disturb them. I hold a Natural England licence
that allows me to survey for the species.

There are a few ponds dotted around the patch, and two of these support breeding great crested newts. Newts begin to return to ponds to breed in early March so I thought I would check out one for evidence. It took about 30 seconds to find my first egg and confirm that they were still breeding. A female great crested newt can lay as many as 250 eggs a season, and will lay around 10 a night as the air and water temperatures increase. This early in the season a female may only lay one or two eggs a night.

Streamer Moth

The warmer day and night-time temperatures has seen an increase in moth activity too. Two nights moth trapping in the garden produced 128 moths of 18 species. The majority of the species were ones that I had already trapped this year; the new species were streamer (above), blossom underwing and early tooth-striped (below).

Early Tooth-striped Moth