Recently

Been up to quite a bit recently so haven't really had time to do a blog post! 

I have managed to graduate, been to Scotland for a while working and various other bits!

For now here's some photos from a 2 day trip to Islay, highlights being 6 singing Corncrake, plenty of Chough, hundreds of Marsh Fritillaries, 4 Narrow Bordered Bee Hawk Moths, awesome views of Golden Eagle and lots more!

Juv Chough

Adult Whooper Swan 

Juv Stonechat, everywhere and doing well breeding wise it seems!

Marsh Fritillary, thanks to a tip off from Becky and Lorna from the Islay Natural History Trust and if your ever on the island go to the Museum! Check out the blog here http://islaynaturalhistory.blogspot.co.uk/

Small Copper

Early Northern Marsh Orchid I think

Narrow Bordered Bee Hawk Moth

Will update the blog as and when I find time to sort through masses of photos!

2 Patch Ticks

Last night I had a walk round Hes East and 'found' a Sedge Warbler! Pretty rare here as the reeds are only just starting to get established, so only the 3rd patch record. Missed the previous 2, last August and Spring 2010, so was nice to get one back, they'll probably end up breeding next year!

This morning had another walk round the site with the clear highlight being an Adult Little Gull that I first picked up at 10:33 in flight at the west end of the site just as it started raining, it then had a bath and stayed around the western scrapes with c.15 Black-headed Gulls then flew off east once the rain stopped at 10:57 and we watched it disappear as a dot! This bird represents the second record for the site (my first) after I missed an adult and 1s last June.

These 2 take me onto 145 for the site!

Digiscoped with Canon S95

 Haven't said much about the Panasonic FZ-200 recently, still very impressed by it and these last 2 days highlight exactly why!

Got these shots of the Little Gull as I first picked it up flying round before it went down. Not amazing you can tell what it is though and it would get it accepted if I was jammy enough to get a Caspian Tern fly through!

Then managed this shot of the Sedge Warbler. Hopefully put this kinda shot into practice whilst kicking round in the iris beds on North Ron later this year! Could help to nail all sorts before it disappears into the vast iris beds up there!

sibilatrix technology

Today I saw a Wood Warbler at Strensall Common

I took this photo

Made this recording




and made this sonogram

Technology is amazing right?

SPURN

Today was awesome! 

Go on the Huttman! Gutted my dissertation is in next week though!

Recently

Despite being really busy with dissertation work at the moment I've still been able to squeeze in plenty of mainly evening trips to Hes East, highlights being

12/04
Arctic Tern on main lake (patch tick)
Black-tailed Godwit (patch tick) through with 7 Grey Plover!
First Swallows and Sand Martins

13/04
first Yellow Wagtail, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler

14/04
Osprey through north east

Note full crop. Also limited breast band indicating male?

15/04
Quick twitch to Flamborough for the stunning 2cy drake Baikal Teal and an early Swift

Red Kite through west
Pintail over south (patch tick)
Jay (3rd personal patch record)

16/04
fall of Wheatear with 26 on Hes East and 58! in the wider Heslington area with 29 in 1 field!!!

17/04 
male Peregrine

18/04
2 Arctic Terns in morning increasing to 4 in the evening along with a Common
17+ Wheatear

Showed down to 3ft!

Experimented with a bit of slow motion video, really need to use this more!!!




Reason why I'm making time to do this post is that it is partly dissertation related!

Basically I'd like some opinions on the following;

The increase in wintering Blackcaps in the UK is a result of increase in non-native plants in gardens and increase in wild bird feeding. 'Reverse' migrants were always coming to Britain but would either re-orientate to winter or only be present in small numbers, however the above reasons caused this population to increase as birds with this genetic pre-disposition returned and bred and so this sub-population increased.

Linking this to Yellow-browed Warblers, if we assume that they have a similar relationship and are finding new wintering areas and so increasing on passage in Britain, what factors has caused them to increase? 

So what I'd like to hear opinions on is what people think the equivalent of what non-native plants and increase in wild bird feeding did for Blackcaps is for Yellow-browed Warblers?

This is forming part of my discussion, so just curious to hear peoples opinions at the moment, have a few of my own but just curious as to what others think! Hope it makes sense!

Either drop a comment below or send me an email on timmyjones1234@hotmail.com

Thanks!

Spring

Finally feel like it spring today!

An evening at Hes East produced;

Arctic and Common Terns spent all evening fishing around the main lake

7 Grey Plover and a Black-tailed Godwit

21 Swallow and 5 Sand Martin through north east

Really good birding and 2 patch ticks!

Aythya Hybrid

Managed to get some photos of the Aythya hybrid thats been doing the rounds in the LDV recently, click on images for a larger photo, comments would be really appreciated!

Seems to be a pretty good Lesser Scaup wing pattern?

Nice amount of restricted black on nail

peak on head seems to far forward

black on nail can look larger at times, confusingly so! Maybe due to water on bill?

head shape just before a dive

In the field it looks to be slightly larger than a Tufted Duck and the mantle has very faint vermiculations, views are alright probably around 500 m away from Garganey hide

Is this what a Scaup x Lesser Scaup looks like?!

Russell Slack

Thought I'd put a quick note on here to make sure anyone who wants to come to Russell Slack's funeral tomorrow knows the details;

Russell's funeral will take place on Friday 15th March at 1pm(tomorrow), at St. Helen's Church, Wheldrake and afterwards a celebration of his life at the Swallow Hotel, Crockey Hill Golf Course

At Russell's request no black/tie or suits. Please come casually dressed.

Donations will be taken for Macmillans and local Wheldrake Trust (details to follow, but to involve support for the LDV and academic courses involving Ornithology).