Thur 4.1.23

Fairly quiet, not many birds in general and the gull roost fairly small. One interesting gull though, had some features of Azorean ssp atlantis: the classic dense dark streaking on the face to mid crown but lacking from mid crown to nape; striking bill pattern with a noticeably pale tip, dark mid section (poss with some red? but too busy trying to get pics ) then paler base.  Bird seemed adult with no sign of immaturity, tho of course could be near-adult. Mantle mid way between LBBG and HG in direct comparison. Forehead somewhat flattish compared to micahellis. Sadly, without open wing shots (and ideally a look at the legs) this is only a possible. Since getting interested in gulls late 90s, I've never seen an atlantis candidate til today, nor in fact a bird looking remotely like this one!

Pics are very very poor due to fading light and  long distance, and have totally failed to get the bill pattern (except for slightly on one, but only because i know its there!). On some, the dark streaking on the face/head can be seen and mantle can be assessed compared to LBBG and HG. My new phone has 3 lenses and i dont know which one to hold to the scope! Pity it was my last day in Cheshire today, so unable to make a return visit for a couple of weeks.

Redpoll calling round the Obs.

Edit- unable to attach crap pics, when I click on attach file below, my phone doesn't offer my gallery, just voice recorder or camera. Not sure what I'm doing wrong as managed a couple of times previously.

Edit - will try again to attach pics, tho they are fairly worthless!

-- Edited by Mike Duckham on Friday 5th of January 2024 11:39:18 AM

2 Redpolls, 2 adult Caspian Gulls, a 2nd winter Yellow Legged Gull, calling Water Rail and Cettis Warbler. Will try to attach pics with different exposures. Edit - 1 of the Casps.

-- Edited by Mike Duckham on Wednesday 6th of December 2023 11:23:04 PM

Sun 28th Aug Hobby 1 feeding on dragonflies. Calling from time to time, but it seems it's on its own - has it lost an offspring or mate I wonder.. 

Cettis Warbler 1

 

Sat 27th

Kingfisher 1

Hobby 1

Cettis Warbler 1

-- Edited by Mike Duckham on Monday 29th of August 2022 10:58:05 AM

2.3 - singing Cettis

4.3 - Song Thrush imitating Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Moorhen, intermedius LBBGull, and a very odd gull which looked like you'd imagine a LBBGull x Ring Billed to look like.  A Google search of other hybrids of this combo reveal similar looking birds, but hard to say with certainty. 

5.3 - leucistic BHG, 3rd cal Yellow Legged Gull,  Oytercatcher, intermedius LBBG.

Caspian Gull - 1 ad.

Mediterranean Gull - 1 ad, some flecking coming through from behind eye to rear of crown.

Missed 4 Whooper swans which flew off just prior to my arrival.
Nice to chat to a local birder, from several metres away obviously!

-- Edited by Mike Duckham on Monday 25th of January 2021 07:10:49 AM

After my last look at the roost on Sun 18th was a tad disappointing - only notable  gull being a "normal looking" intermedius (so not the small, dark bird seen a couple of weeks ago), I was pleasantly surprised that the strong southerlies seemed to have brought up some birds of interest.

3 Yellow Legged Gull: 1st W, 2nd W, near-ad.

Caspian Gull: ad & 1st W. These 2 birds were aggressive,  booting HGs around, and interacting with each other. The adult had at least p10 not fully grown. 

 

The leucistic Black Headed Gull has returned for its umpteenth year. 

Cettis Warbler singing near Boat house. Stock Dove singing by church. 31 LBBG. Hornet.

Late news from last week (apols, been largely offline): Mon 7th Sept: Willow Tit 2, Spotted Flycatcher 1, Cettis Warbler 1, Stock Dove 23.

-- Edited by Mike Duckham on Thursday 17th of September 2020 11:05:30 AM

3 Swifts fairly high towards Mere Covert from the churchyard. Nearby at least 1 Raven being mobbed by a Buzzard in the sheep fields along Marsh Lane.

Caspian Gull - 2; 1 ad, 1 x 4th winter. Different birds to the one on the 10th.
Recent sightings include Barn Owl and Lesser Redpoll.

Realised i wasn't clear - i'm referring to the leucistic Black Headed Gull, which has been seen at Pennington. Wasn't able to go into my post again to re-edit.

Goldfinch - c.20 in tree in the garden of The Rowans, prob a pre-roost gathering
Sparrowhawk - 1 on the bird table
Little Egret 1
Caspian Gull - 1 ad
Yellow Legged or Caspian Gull - 2 ads. Unfortunately, 1 was obscured by a tree in the foreground, and the other was mostly facing directly away. I suspect one was another Caspian and one was a Yellow Legged, but i'm by no means certain.

Bittern and Great Egret have been reported in the last couple of weeks.

Peregrine 1 imm female
Yellow Legged Gull 1 ad
Cetti's Warbler calling mere edge still

Noticeable increase in Teal in the colder easterlies - 61
Goosander 12
Yellow Legged Gull 4 ads
Cetti's Warbler- 1 calling

 

Pochard 6
Kingfisher 1
Yellow Legged Gull min. of 3 ads.
Cetti's Warbler calling below the obs.

Hi Steve, sadly not a singing male, it was a bird giving the loud rolling call as it made its way through the mereside habbo below the obs. Perhaps both sexes give this call?, no idea. I was quite surprised - after the Beast From the East I would have expected the northernmost birds to gave been hit the hardest.

2 ad Yellow Legged Gulls - 1 small one from previous visits, and a new larger bird.
The small intermedius/fuscus still present. Also an oddly pale graellsii, which i think was probably the same bird i saw on 25th Nov last year. Also a partial leucistic LBBG.
At least one dark presumed argentatus, prob 4th calendar.
One Cettis Warbler.

 

2 ad Yellow Legged Gulls.
1 intermedius/fuscus LBBG - this was the smallest i've ever seen and was markedly smaller than all the graellsii.

-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Friday 19th of October 2018 09:58:17 PM

Late posting for yesterday adult Yellow-legged Gull in the roost. Also 19 Lapwings and a Snipe.

1.8.18

Around the Obs:
Common Whitethroat 1 fem/imm.
Lesser Whitethroat 1
Willow Warbler 1 juv.
Chiffchaff 3 juvs "chasing" the tits and nuthatches as they went to and from the birdtable, most amusing.
Spotted Flycatcher caught and quickly ate a wasp.
Bullfinch ad pr + 2 juvs.
Kestrel 1 juv still present, fed by the male.

Great Black Backed Gull 1 on mere.

Edit - 1st Aug.

-- Edited by Mike Duckham on Monday 6th of August 2018 06:12:16 PM

lYellowhammer - 1 singing along Dirty Lane, i can't remember having them in the area before.
Lesser Whitethroat - 1.

-- Edited by Mike Duckham on Wednesday 25th of July 2018 10:28:52 PM

Yellow Legged Gull 1 adult (judging by its size & jizz, i think the same bird as previous)
Bullfinch 3 on the table in front of the obs
Robin 1. As i was about to close the window at 6pm i noticed a decent-sized spider just outside the window, lowering itself on a thread. As i wondered how and why it was functioning while it was -2 deg C, something whizzed past. It was the Robin grabbing the spider in mid air, it perched up and quickly swallowed it.
Mandarin 1 drake
Snipe 2
Fox 1.

Tuesday, 20th February 2018 10:00 - 15:00 hrs. Sunny spells but cool.

Female Hawfinch x 1 (at 10:00 - as soon as I arrived at car park; and at 12:50 hrs) in top of tree on the other side of wall to left of footpath from Natural England car park going towards Observatory/Mere.

Other birds seen included:
Buzzard x 3
Kestrel x 1
Redwing x 30
Fieldfare x 10
Greenfinch x 2
Siskin x 1
Coal Tit x 3
Great Spotted Woodpecker x 2
Nuthatch x 2
Wigeon x 20
Goosander x 2
Bullfinch x 4
Dunnock x 1
Wren x 2
Blackbird x 5
Chaffinch x 10
Blue Tit x 7
Great Tit x 5
Robin x 8
Goldfinch x 15
Jackdaw x 10
Carrion Crow x 4
Mute Swan x 2

One adult and one 2nd cal Yellow Legged Gull in the roost this evening, and at least 2 very dark adult argentatus.    One of the strangest things i've ever seen, however, was a huge ("it was this big") what i think was a pike cruising around an area of the mere. All the gulls went up and i assumed it was a Peregrine, however after a few minutes of fruitless scanning i noticed something swimming around - at first i thought it was an Otter, then i realised it was a large fish swimming around and behaving weirdly. The gulls all landed at the other end of the mere. The lack of a dorsal fin, very rounded fins at the rear end, sleek shape and even the underbite of the lower jaw could all be seen as it cruised around right at the surface of the water with a large amount of it out of the water - got the impression that the eyes were above water a lot of the time.  Occasionally it would splash about a bit, or even upend with its back end in the air. I'd love to know what the hell it was doing!?

-- Edited by Mike Duckham on Monday 29th of January 2018 10:52:26 AM