Pied Flycatcher

Its funny how things turn out, I was due to pick my daughter up from work at 5 o'clock today, but I managed to mis-read the time on my phone. I arrived at 4 o'clock and only realised my mistake when I pulled into the car park

So I had an hour to kill, but I wasn't going to waste it. I turned straight around and headed to Croft Hill. A Blackcap shot out of the hedge and landed close to an adult Spotted Flycatcher that was feeding two fresh juveniles. The adult flew towards some dead branches and another slightly smaller bird followed it. I was pleased to see it was a Pied Flycatcher. 

It continued to show well returning to the same dead branches after each sortie onto the ground in search of insects.

I would never have seen it if I could read the time - lucky!

Pied Flycatcher, Croft Hill, 07/08/2015

Just Can't get Enough

Another season this evening at Shawell netted me another adult Caspian Gull. This one has a very distinct look about its head and its bill, so much so that I think I may have seen it before. It was distant, but my trusty new scope performed really well. Below is an image taken from about 400 metres away from the bird.

See if you can spot the adult Caspian Gull and the juvenile and adult Yellow-legged Gulls.

I've also included a photo of a smart juvenile Yellow-legged Gull. There are loads of juvenile YLGs around at the moment. 

Spot the Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull

The Return of Caspian Gull PADZ

I decided to try Cotesbach Landfill Site again yesterday evening in the hope of bagging a 'classic' juvenile Caspian Gull. I didn't get what I went for, but I did spot an old friend. The gulls were mostly distant, probably trying to get some shelter from the strong wind, but even so I spotted an adult Caspian Gull amongst them. Although it was at least 400 metres away, I could see it had a yellow colour-ring. Straining my eyes and fighting the wind, I managed to read the middle letters - AD. Surely it must be my old friend PADZ, but before I could work on the other letters it wandered behind some tall plants.

Eventually I turned my attention to the gulls feeding on the tip and, you guessed it, PADZ appeared amongst them and posed well enough for me to confirm my fourth sighting of this bird.

Adult Caspian Gull PADZ - Polish Ringed

PADZ

I first saw PADZ almost a year ago - see HERE. 

It obviously likes Leicestershire as it is building up a nice set of records for Albion Landfill site and the Shawell area.

Update on the Breeding Gulls in Leicester

As you know, I have been keeping an eye on the gulls breeding at the old British Shoe warehouse in Leicester. I've also been worrying about the threat of the building being demolished during July. Well the building is still there and the gulls have had a successful breeding season much to the annoyance of some people. I counted around 80 juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls last night although the total is higher as this is just juveniles resting on lower roofs. I still can't see much of the roof the gulls are nesting on. I estimate that there is about 50 pairs of LBB Gulls and between 10 and 20 pairs of Herring Gulls.

I have enjoyed photographing the gulls flying between the buildings:

Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull (colour ringed  blue JMH, Gloucestershire)

Third Calendar Year Lesser Black-backed Gull

Second Calendar Year Lesser Black-backed Gull

Adult Herring Gull

Adult Herring Gull

Black-headed Gulls

So the Black-headed Gulls arriving in Leicestershire are not necessarily local breeding birds despite the fact it is still July.

At Shawell there has been a steady build up of Black-headed Gulls. At the beginning of July there was just four, then 32 appeared including a few juveniles, then 200 and by the 25th over 1000 were present. It is easy to think that the first small group had come from a local source. However, amongst the small group seen on 11th was one ringed in Poland and another ringed in Croatia.

So far this month I have recorded five colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls: three from Poland and one each from England and The Netherlands. This is not bad considering I've only successfully read 23 at Shawell since 2012. They are quite distant and the codes are very small. I have treated myself to a new scope with 70x magnification, so hopefully the extra 10x will improve my strike rate.

I have sightings of colour-ringed BHGs from Croatia, Denmark, England, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Scotland and The Netherlands. 

It just goes to show that a species we generally take for granted can turn out to be interesting.

TNCT Originally Ringed in Southern Poland was at Shawell on 25/07/15. Photo Tomascz Iciek

After writing this post, Steve Lister and Terry Sherwood saw TNCT at Rutland Water. This is quite remarkable and for me it is a really interesting insight into the wonderings of gulls around our local area.