Up close with a Dartford Warbler...or two

Chris and I have been planning a project looking at Dartford Warblers for a while now and today we finally got the chance to put our plans into action. It was a fantastic bright and sunny spring morning except for being a little breezy, but we thought we would give it a go anyway. The wind was forecast to pick up even more later in the morning, so I met Chris at 7am and headed to the site.

It was breezier than we had hoped, which was made worse by the fact that the site was quite open. We spied our quarry immediately but had no joy at the first site, but at the second we caught a male and a female. There is something pretty special about the small Sylvia warblers, and I have been fortunate to see a few species over the years. In the hand though they are even more stunning.

The male bird has a dark grey head and grey-brown back which contrasts with the dark wine-red underparts, the iris and eye ring are bright red and fine white spots are present on the throat.

Male Dartford Warbler

Male Dartford Warbler

The female is duller with the head and back browner, the eye ring and iris are duller and the underparts paler. The throat is also paler and lacks the white spots.

Female Dartford Warbler

Female Dartford Warbler

I used to ring quite a few Dartford Warblers when I ringed at a site on Hayling Island, but haven't ringed one for a while now, so it was a real treat to catch some again. The wind had really got up by the time we had finished processing the birds, and so rather than try and catch more we decided to wander around and see how many territories we could find. In the full sun there were plenty of males singing and by the end of our stroll we had recorded nine territories, so plenty to do this spring.

Male Dartford Warbler

Male Dartford Warbler

Male Dartford Warbler

There were plenty of other species singing, particularly Linnets and Greenfinches and a handful of Skylark and Meadow Pipits. A pair of Long-tailed Tits were also busy looking for a nest site and were very approachable.

Long-tailed Tit

Red-backed Shrike and Mediterranean Gulls - Sandy Point, Hayling Island - September 2014

Back on the 4th September Andy Johnson found a Red-backed Shrike at Sandy Point on Hayling Island. I had been hoping to get down to see it at some point but had been too busy, today (14th September) it was still around and so after this mornings ringing session at Titchfield Haven I headed down to see it. The bird had been frequenting the south-eastern corner of the reserve, and therefore was best viewed from the beach, so that's where I headed. I arrived around midday and the bird was performing well. Occasionally it would drop out of view in a patch of gorse, but most of the time it was sat proud on top of vegetation. At one point it appeared to try and catch one of two Stonechats, but they managed to avoid it.

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike - Sandy Point, Hayling Island

As well as the Red-backed Shrike and the Stonechats, two Northern Wheatears were present and a couple of Dartford Warblers put on a good show.

Dartford Warbler - Sandy Point, Hayling Island

After a while the shrike disappeared, so I began to scan out to sea. In the race just offshore there were a large number of gulls feeding, of which the majority were Mediterranean Gulls. They were fairly close to the shore and so I headed down to the tide line to get a better look.

Adult Black-headed (left), 2nd Winter Mediterranean (middle) and two adult Mediterranean (right) Gulls

There were over 70 Mediterranean Gulls present of different ages, the most numerous being first year birds, a couple of second winters and a good number of adults. Some images of the different ages are below.

First Winter Mediterranean Gull 

Second Winter Mediterranean Gull

Adult Winter Mediterranean Gull

As I sat and watched the Med Gulls several other species dropped in. A juvenile Kittiwake put in a brief appearance, as did a couple of Common Terns followed by a four of five Sandwich Terns, a mixture of moulting adults and juveniles.

Adult Sandwich Tern - Sandy Point, Hayling Island

Juvenile Sandwich Tern - Sandy Point, Hayling Island

Juvenile Sandwich Tern - Sandy Point, Hayling Island

My attention was diverted at one point by two Lancaster Bombers flying east.They were quite far out to sea, but headed in land later for a display in West Sussex, which I was able to watch from a distance.

Lancaster Bombers - Hayling Island