A Surprise Redstart

This afternoon I was sitting in my car eating sandwiches when I heard a bird singing in the Hawthorn hedge at my side. The song was unfamiliar, but the contact call sounded similar to that of a Chiffchaff though louder. The bird stopped calling and I almost forgot about it whilst I was eating. All of a sudden a male Redstart appeared on the gate right in front of my windscreen. What an absolute stonker and all the more exciting as I wasn't expecting a singing Redstart in a hedge near Shawell today.

Male Redstart, Near Shawell

A Gentle Stroll

Dawn and I I headed off to the Peak District today to stretch our legs in preparation for a trip to Scotland later this year. We walked the length of Stanage Edge and then along Derwent Edge as far as Black Tor and returned more or less the same way to the car park  near Hathersage. In all we clocked up just over 14 miles.

The birding highlights included a fine male Ring Ouzel and an equally splendid male Redstart. 

Stanage Edge

Ring-billed Gull - Take Two

1st-summer Ring-billed Gull, Melton CP

To be honest I wasn't that pleased with the photos I took of the Ring-billed Gull last week, so  yesterday I decided to try again. Last time I was restricted to using my scope to provide the magnification, as the RBG was out in the middle of the lake. This technique is only really good enough for taking records shots unless the target is close and the light is perfect. Last week it was hanging around with a small flock of Common Gulls, but they seem to have gone and left it all on its own. 

Yesterday afternoon it was lured in quite close with bread although it still spent much of its time out in the middle of the lake.

Will this bird become an annual feature at Melton CP and will we get to see it as a smart adult?

1st-summer Ring-billed Gull, Melton CP

What's Up?

The BTO has just launched a new survey called What's Up? The survey aims to learn more about the distribution of the birds that live and breed above 750 metres. I'm proud to say that they have chosen to use a couple of my Ptarmigan photos to promote it. Pride of place goes to the one on the front of an identification guide that has been produced to go along with the survey.

I hope to take part in the survey later on in the year, as I often see more Ptarmigan and Dotterel than are recorded in the Highland Bird Report. As they say, don't leave it to someone else.

Details about the survey can be found at What's Up?

A Few Gulls From Finland

A few years ago now, I visited Finland and spent a week photographing and watching European Brown Bears. The food put out to attract the bears also pulled in plenty of gulls. To be honest I didn't take that much notice of the gulls at the time, as the main event was slightly more impressive. However, since becoming hooked on gulls I thought it might be worth going back and taking another look at the  photographs. Most of them were of Baltic Gulls Larus fuscus fuscus, but amongst them were a number of Herring Gulls including the 'yellow-legged' Scandinavian Herring Gull from the previous post and a putative Heuglin's Gull Larus Heuglini.

I have added some of the photos below for interest, as a Baltic Gull might just turn up on one of our local patches. It would probably need to be colour-ringed to get it accepted though.

Baltic Gull, Larus fuscus fuscus