Holme Fen & Grafham Water 16 July 2012

Inspite of the low clouds scudding across from the south-west mixed with intermittent rain rather than the insect friendly warm sunny weather that one would hope for in July. I manged to have a reasonable morning at Holme Fenn NNR.a serene block of habitat which is is the largest natutal birch woodland in the country.

The avian highlights were 3 Marsh Harriers (1 male) over adjacent arable land; a female Garganey on the mere and a nearly trod on male Quail which literally jumped then flew over a small dyke into a wheat field, guaranteed to be my only Quail sighting of the year other than those hung in Borough Market.
Stopped off at Grafham on the way home at lunchtime, with the rain becoming heavy and persistent, little to be seen apart from 5 Yellow-legged Gulls, 2 Green Sandpipers, a lone Dunlin at the lagoons and small numbers of Swifts and hirundines struggling to feed...

juvenile Blackcap

Grafham Water 15 July 2012

A cool wnw breeze this morning felt more like September than mid July.
A fairly quite morning the highlight being a summer-plumaged Knot that circled the middle of the reservoir mid morning then flew off east; 3 Green Sandpipers on the lagoons; 5 Common Sandpipers, 4 Lapwings high south; 8 Yellow-legged Gulls (3 ads, 1 4th calendar year, 3 3rd calndar years and 1 2nd calendar year); 10 Common Terns (all adults); c 50 Swifts and juvenile Yellow Wagtails now up to 7 in number along the dam road.

Large Skipper on Self-heal - out in numbers today

Little Paxton - balcony birding 11 July 2012

A couple of hours on the balcony in nice weather this evening until heavy rain set in...

A single adult Hobby, 2 Black-Tailed Godwits through south, 4 Oystercatchers over, 3 Redshank along the river, 8 Common terns and a group of c60 House Martins were the highlights; notably few Swifts around this evening compared to just a week ago and I suspect that many are already drifting southwards...

Grafham Water 9 July 2012

from 0600 to lunchtime along the dam and around the lagoons, largely overcast with a fairly fresh westerly


An early autumn pulse of sterna Terns came through at about 9.00 am 16 Adult Common Terns with more surprisingly a single first-summer Arctic Tern, the flock appeared over the dam then flew off strongly west before I could get any shots of the hyperactive and generally infrequently seen first-summer Arctic...


Waders were restricted to 5 Common Sandpipers and 3 Green Sandpipers; 14 Yellow-legged Gulls (5 adults, 1 4th calendar year, 2 2nd calendar years, and 6 3rd calendar years); an adult Hobby over the model farm harassing Swallows added a touch of dash and class to proceedings as they always do; 4 Red Kites was a good count; a male Cuckoo was also at the model farm, a single Turtle Dove at the lagoons and the first three juvenile Yellow Wagtails along the dam were welcome sights. A second brood of 9 Gadwall ducklings at the lagoons looked to be doing well. 

Cuckoo

Grafham Water 7 July 2012

Did three and a half hours early morning along the dam and lagoons area in initially murky then clearer conditions with a light ESE breeze..


An Osprey flew east at 09:15 ish; waders continue to pass through 8 Lapwings flew south, a Ringed Plover arrived from the north, 6 Common Sandpipers (4 along the dam & 2 near the yacht club), 8 Green Sandpipers on the lagoons and a couple of Redshanks; larids were represented by 7 Yellow-legged Gulls (2 ads, 4 3rd calendar years, 1 4th calendar year), 17 LBB's just 3 GBB's and an interesting 3rd calendar year gull that was most likely a Caspian Gull (see below). 
Otherwise 6 Little Egrets (3 juveniles), 6 Common Terns and an adult Spotted Flycatcher near the dam were the highlights. An early passage of Swifts south c.250 was indicative of the poor breeding season that they have doubtless had and for similar reasons most warbler species are still singing frequently including 2 Cetti's at the lagoons; 3 adult male Yellow Wagtails were carrying food at the north side of the dam. 

Garden Warbler

Little Egrets 

An interesting Gull

This gull was near the dam in the company of Yellow-legged Gulls and LBB's early morning only after which it flew off south. Aged as a third calendar year bird undergoing it's second complete moult. This is probably the most difficult age to identify Caspian and Yellow-legged Gull in cases where the latter is atypical in appearance and close to Caspian, on current knowledge no one feature other than the 'long call' can clinch the identification at this age, sadly this bird did not call. The bird was assumed to be a small female. 


Using the criteria laid out in BB in 2010 (Vol. 103, 141-204) here's a very brief analysis with emphasis on the key features:


Structure & bare parts: 
Size similar to small Yellow-legged but slimmer and somewhat narrower winged; 
legs longish and quite thin with a good amount of tibia on show pale greyish flesh coloured; head small and rounded; attenuated rear end and high chested though no significant ventral bulge and no tertial step. These features favour a small female Caspian but some could be shown by a minority of small female Yellow-legged.
Bill slim narrow with a minimal gonydal angle and with the bill length 2.5x + the depth at the gonys. Very strongly indicative of Caspian, colour a little bright than would be expected in typical Caspian though.
Eye colour appeared dark the iris actually being dark grey/brown when close indicative of Caspian. 
Plumage:
Mantle colour within the range of both Caspian and Yellow-legged.
Underwing white - strongly indicative of Caspian. 
Primaries in active moult - inner primaries appear to have been moulted (?) so lacks the venetian blind effect of 2nd winters though there is some suggestion of a contrast between pale grey inner webs and black outer webs, this is only present on some Caspian and is said to be absent on Yellow-legged. 

Even taking an over cautious approach this was a female Caspian Gull rather than a small female Yellow-Legged Gull. In fact it very much has the appearance of the darker mantled round headed eastern barabensis form of Caspian Gull  'Steppe Gull' (e.g. check plate 467 of an adult in Olsen and Larsson)


Poscript: increased numbers of Caspian Gull sightings evident in various locations across the  east of England over the two days following this sighting so clearly there had been an arrival of this species from the east....

Grafham Water 2 July 2012

Wandered around the lagoons and along the dam in rather damp conditions...rather quiet
2 Little Egrets, 9 Yellow-legged Gulls, a single adult Ringed Plover, a Redshank and 3 Green Sandpipers were the best of  it...

Grafham Water 1 July 2012

Yet another breezy morning but bright and mostly dry at least, walked the dam and lagoons area for five or so hours from early morning.
The trickle of waders continues with a Little Ringed Plover and Common Sandpiper on the dam and 4+ Green Sandpipers on the lagoons. Otherwise 1 Little Egret; 4 Red Kites; 6 Common Buzzards; 9 Yellow-legged Gulls (4 adults, 1 4th calendar year, 4 3rd calendar year and 1 2nd calendar year); 21 GBB Gulls; 7 LBB Gulls; 5 Herring Gulls;just 3 Common Terns; c 350 Swifts; c 20 Swallows; 4 Sand Martins resting on the dam wall were presumably failed breeders; 34 House Martins; 3 adult male Yellow Wagtails; a rather interesting female 'alba' Wagtail carrying food and paired to a standard issue male yarrelli at the lagoons (photo below), 4 Crossbills (1 male) which flew west over the lagoons and more surprisingly 5 Siskins (a two and a three) flew over south-west late morning, interestingly single figure moving Siskins were noted yesterday from a couple of east coast sites, it's always nice to tie in local patch movements with broader scale avian events recorded at star coastal locations even when on a small scale an in early July!

Unusual female 'alba' wagtail - presumbaly a pale variant female yarrelli with the head
and upperpart pattern rather similar to winter male alba with a yellowish cast to the ear coverts 
and slate grey/black rump and uppertail coverts  Paired with a standard issue male yarrelli. 

Little Ringed Plover