Terns and gulls

This evening I've been helping out with some of these cute little fellows

Common Tern chick

Mark is running a project to study the Common Terns at Broom gravel pits. Tonight he made the third visit of the spring to Cocks Island (the 'Pea' prefix has mysteriously fallen off the sign). The tern chicks were fitted with unique combinations of three colour-rings, so Mark will be able to monitor where individual birds end up. We also metal-ringed the Black-headed Gull chicks.

It almost looks like a tropical island...

After we'd finished with the gulls and terns, we tried for some roosting Sand Martins.

It all looked so promising, with hundreds of birds swirling around above the reeds. Eventually they swooped down. As we made our way through the vegetation to the two nets, we didn't know what we'd see - it could have been no birds, or nets full of birds.

It was the former. Never mind.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

East Angular

We've spent the weekend in Suffolk (and a bit of Norfolk).

Friday evening, Nightjar survey, preceded by a fine barbeque and a tasty Firecrest:


Saturday, Sizewell:

Bee Orchid

Dunwich Heath

Sunday, Minsmere:

Common Tern. I thought this was a very artistic style of defecation

Shoveler, drake moulting into eclipse plumage

Tiny Moorhen

Speckled Wood (the only butterfly we saw all weekend!)

Juvenile Magpies outside the cafe

Looking south towards Sizewell

and west (inland)

Konik ponies

We stopped off at Lakenheath in hope of hearing Golden Orioles, but didn't.

And the Ouse Washes at Earith, where we didn't see a Cattle Egret

Good clouds, though

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D + EF 300mm f/4L IS USM or Canon Powershot A640

River Ivel and Rookery

This morning we walked a short distance along the River Ivel at Biggleswade (or Bugleweed, as it is known if you trust Microsoft Outlook's spellchecker)

Common Blue Damselflies, up to no good

Black-tailed Skimmer

Common Tern

Dog-rose

Small Heath

Then on to Rookery pit

Common Blue (butterfly) on Eggs and Bacon (or Bird's Foot Trefoil)

Hobbies. No Red-footed Falcon(s) for us...

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Broom

HMS Avocet sets sail for Peacock's Island

Common Tern chick

Spent this evening at Broom gravel pits, helping Mark Thomas catch and ring Common Terns and Black-headed Gulls.

It was good fun... first, we had to get to the island where the nests were. With six of us to get across in a small plastic dinghy, and only two lifejackets, there was a lot of rowing, well, paddling, to be done. By Mark.

Of course, all the adult birds scarpered when they saw us arrive, so once on the island we had to act quickly. First, chick collection. We covered the whole island (it's not that big) but had to tread very carefully, because eggs and chicks were everywhere.

Chicks big enough for ringing were picked up and placed in big plastic buckets for safekeeping; tiddlers were popped into cotton bird-bags to keep them from getting chilled.

The gulls - 61 of 'em - were ringed first and then awaited their release in the dinghy. That made for a very smelly, messy boat ride back. Just as well it wasn't far.

The tern chicks - there were 18 of those - received two colour-rings, as well as the standard metal ring. If you see a Common Tern sporting a white ring above a sky-blue one, on the left leg, that's one of ours. Report it, please.

Mark's been doing this for the past three years and his colour-ringed terns have turned up subsequently at Grafham Water and Paxton Pits, just up the A1, but also at Minsmere in Suffolk and Spurn in East Yorkshire.

Mark threw away his clothes when he got home.

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Terns

Common Tern, Agia Pavlos

We did well for terns: Common, Little, Gull-billed, Whiskered and White-winged Black. These were mostly on the Kalloni saltpans, but the Common Tern above was sitting on a little rock with its mate in the Gulf of Kalloni near the hamlet of Agia Pavlos. It just happened to take off while I was taking a photo! Pure luck.


However, the less said about this Whiskered Tern record shot, the better.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

No White Wags here...

Ferry Meadows Country Park, this evening

Everyone else is photographing White Wagtails (Motacilla alba alba, that is, as opposed to our Pied Wagtail M. a. yarrellii) these days, so I thought I'd be different.


Female Reed Bunting


Male Chaffinch


No subject too distant (not when they're this big, anyway...)


A stretch, then it's time to go feeding again... Common Terns (the left one is ringed).

The good news at the park tonight was that there are now cows on Heron Meadow, so now we'll know where to look for wagtails and pipits.

Talking of wagtails, I dropped in at Tesco on the way home. There's a Pied Wagtail roost there and birds congregate in the car-park before taking their places in small trees for the night (I counted more than 60 birds there last week).

As I made my way over to the centre, something caught my eye. In the shadow of a BMW, a love story was being played out.

He was singing furiously.
She stood still.
He spread both his wings, almost like a wader doing a broken-wing display, stretched, bill thrust forward, shimmying towards her, being seductive.
She lunged towards him, her bill thrust forward, rebutting him. Go away.
He retreated, in fear of receiving a peck.

The process was repeated two or three times until he obviously got bored with receiving the same response and flew off. I continued my journey towards Tesco, realising that someone had been staring at me staring at the wagtails. They probably thought I was going to nick the BMW's hubcaps...

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 + Leica Apo Televid 62 with 16x eyepiece