RXwildlife Sightings

At last, after a miserable night and early morning SE winds there was a significant easterly movement of birds at sea and good numbers of early migrants on the land. Highlights on the land where our first two Wheatears of the spring along with six Black Redstarts, five Fieldfare, 30 Redwings, 25 Chiffchaffs and 15 Firecrests. Offshore movement consisted mainly of wildfowl with 1700 Brent Geese, 12 Pintail, eight Garganey, 16 Shoveler, and a Scaup along with two Great Skuas, four Mediterranean Gulls and eight Sandwich Terns. A Stone-curlew was seen in the Lade Pit area.

David Walker from DBO website

Now, don’t get excited… I want to highlight the Black-headed Gull or  Larus ridibundus, which means laughing gull. (Not the American species, Laughing Gull or Larus atricilla, which means black-tailed gull.) Anyway, the lighting today at Ternery Pool was perfect to show the plumage of gulls and highlighted the brown head of the Larus ridibundus and the truly black head of Mediterranean Gull or Larus melanocephalus, meaning black headed gull.  All very confusing for beginners!

Read the rest of this entry »

An encounter with Bearded Tits at the viewpoint (Castle Water) does not usually amount to much, if your lucky you get a brief climpse after spending lots of time listening to their pinging calls. This morning though a group of 13 birds put on a fine display continually flying up to about 20 feet above the reeds, then diving straight back down again. In between these flights the birds gave fantastic views perched on the reeds, occasionally landing very close.

Lots of birdsong from the wood this misty morning, with Robin, Wren and Dunnock all in good voice, Song Thrushes singing from the treetops along with aMistle Thrush near the car park. Blackbirds have not really got going yet, and the many colourful Chaffinches were probably migrants stopping over on their way north.
3 Chiffchaffs, recently arrived, added to the Spring atmosphere, as did the speckling of Wood Anemones in the Woodland Trust coppices and Dog’s Mercury with Lesser Celandine along the stream.
Blue, Great, Coal and Marsh Tits were also loud and Long-tailed Tits, though not actually singing, were noticeable as they carried nesting material about. If you’re not sure about the songs of these species, now is the time to track down the birds while they’re establishing territory and the trees are still bare.
4 pairs of G S Woodpeckers cast a tracery of drumming across the area, one pair displaying with moth-like flight in a huge oak, and 2 Green Woodpeckers were yaffling. Nuthatches and Treecreepers were also making themselves conspicuous.
Read the rest of this entry »

Now is a good time to see the flight displays of Lapwing on the Beach Reserve, at least 20 pairs are present along the shingle ridges, many pairs are now busy making nest scrapes (pictured). The arial displays of Ringed Plover and the noisy courtship dance of Oystercatchers are also now a regular sight. Other highlights this morning included, 13 Avocet on the new pools on Harbour Farm, 10 Sandwich Tern and a Wheatear at Ternery Pool and 44 Knot on Flat Beach Quarry.