Plenty of sunshine and some good birds - can't be bad!
Some of my time on Saturday was spent gulling at Shawell and Sunday morning I shared my time between looking for Corn Buntings in the west of Leicestershire, doing my bit of the 'winter thrush survey' and starting to look at the Peregrine survey.
I found five singing Corn Buntings at the regular sites and also a few pairs of Grey Partridges and a single male Wheatear. The large arable fields prove quite popular with Wheatears at this time of year as the crops are quite short allowing them access to the soil to look for food.
I only managed to get a record shot of one of the Corn Buntings. Unfortunately I didn't find one that would let me approach closely in my car. A few years back I was able to drive up close to a singing male, but that one no longer appears to be in the area. In fact I can no longer find any near Orton-on-the-Hill these days.
This year the Leicestershire & Rutland Ornithological Society (LROS) are conducting a survey to try and establish how many Corn Buntings are still to be found in the counties. Please send any records to Steve Lister the county recorder CONTACT DETAILS
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Corn Bunting
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March is a good time for 'white-winged' Gulls at Shawell A5 lagoons, but so far this March I had come away empty handed after each visit. That all changed today when this little beauty arrived.
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Adult Iceland Gull
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I recently spotted a Lesser black-backed Gull at Shawell A5 Lagoons in Leicestershire. It sported a green colour ring with the code M.ACV. This gull has been fitted with a data recorder, which uses GPS technology to record its movements. The data recorder has small solar panels to charge its batteries. The data is downloaded when the gull is within 5km of the base station in the Netherlands. In order to see the map showing its recent visit to Shawell I will have to wait until it goes back to the colony where it breeds.
Kees Camphuysen has kindly provided me with the google map, which allows you to look at its winter movements on a daily basis. During the winter of 2011/12 it visited Cotesbach Landfill site and presumably Shawell A5 Lagoons, but in 2012/13 it only got close, but appeared to stay on the Warwickshire side of the A5. With this mapping you can see where it rested on a factory roof in Daventry and that it visited a field near Huncote and also Cadeby. It also stopped off in Leicester.
This Gull has also been seen by Steve Lister at Albion landfill site near Albert Village Lake, Leicestershire.
The first map reveals all of its travels in winter 2011/12:
During my recent holiday, I was lucky enough to spend time photographing a small flock of Purple Sandpipers. The light was fantastic, but at times a bit too bright (never happy). Anyway reviewing the images later on I noticed that many of the feathers have a purple sheen to them. This is rarely seen apparently and it is this purple sheen that gives the species its name.
If this is true that it is rarely seen then whoever named it had really good eyes or perhaps they shot one and looked at it in bright sunlight?
Photographs often reveal things that are not obvious when watching a fast moving bird.
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Purple Sandpiper, Nairn
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t's back to Shawell now, but the memory of Scottish harbours full of 'white-wingers' is still fresh in my mind (not quite full, but it sounds good). I expected to find at least one 'white-winger' at Shawell but no such luck. I've had to be satisfied with encounters in the murky world of Caspian Gulls, plus a small influx of Yellow-legged Gulls. At least ten different Yellow-legged Gulls have been present this week.
The Caspian Gull below shows a good set of features, Long sickly flesh coloured legs; long parallel sided dingy yellow bill (dark marks on bill suggest immaturity); dark forward set eyes; small headed; long winged and the pattern of black and white on the underside of the longest primary feather (P10) is typical of a sub-adult Caspian Gull. The black subterminal mark on the bill and the upper wing pattern appeared slightly immature, so it is probably a fourth-winter. The primary coverts still have some black visible, which is another good indicator of its immaturity.
It is not so easy to see, but a white tongue cuts under the black of P10. That said there is slightly more black than classic individuals show, but its still within normal variation especially if my ageing is correct. It can be seen better on some photos I took of it, but this one shows a nice profile.
The shape of gulls can alter in a split second. One minute this Caspian Gull looked elegant and small headed and the next it could look hunched and larger headed.
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Sub-adult Caspian Gull
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