Just to finish off the month, its Ogden again.

 

                                      2cy Herring , foreground,  sub adult Herring, rear

                                                   2 cy LBB

                                      Sub ad Herring, still brown feathers on coverts and tertials.

                                                     2 cy Herring

                                                    Another sub adult Herring

Only time free today was midday for a quick dash to Ogden but too early for the pre roost gulls coming in so had to settle for a small number with just 3 sub adult Herrings and 4 2nd summers. Very few LBBs  but plenty Commons and Black Headed.

                                 Amazingly, with the amount of mud exposed there were no waders and the only water fowl was the usual Gt Crested Grebe plus a few Canadas and Mallards.

                              Strange to see a Peacock walking down Perseverance Road.

A Osprey was over TMR today,(B.O.G.) but no details of time or direction.

BS

The Ogden Dash

 

                                        1 of 5 adult Herring gulls

                                                    several adult LBB

                                      a mix of around 30 1 cy and 2 cy.

                                                 More Common gulls now showing.

A mid afternoon dash spending 30 minutes with the Ogden gulls failed to produce anything that looked out of the ordinary. All the juvs seemed to fit into the Herring/ LBB category with around 30 adult LBB and just 5 adult Herring as well as 17 Common. 

                           A scan through the 40+ Black Headed produced several juvs but still awaiting a med gull in with them.

BS

More gulls I,m afraid, Ogden late afternoon.

 

                                           Adult Herring gull

                                           East bank gulls, mainly ad LBBs

                         Sticking my neck out and captioning this as 1 cy Yellow Legged Herring

                         Light head, dark shadow round eye forming mask streaking on neck

                       Main reason, slight moulting of scapulars, too early for this

                                     on Herring and LBB.  Correct me if I,m wrong.

     

                         over exposed so can,t tell if  mantle is grey or brown. LBB or Herring

                                           Probable Herring, no distinct pattern but short projection.

                                    juv Herring with pattern to base of coverts

                                                  Adult Herring

                     White headed bird,  would have liked to make this into caspian

                                   but heavy barring says Herring.

                                           

                       A late afternoon gull check at Ogden with just 30 minutes to spare found, once again, I arrived too late at 1600 hrs when most of the big gulls had left with around 40 adult LBB, c 60 BHG, 9 Commons and just 1 adult Herring. A check through the c 20 juv and 2cy birds produced what I believe to be a Yellow Legged Herring plus other juvs I have yet to caption asap.

BS.          

      

Looking forward to September

 With September almost on us there,s still time for some wader passage, though the month is usually highlighted with wildfowl movement with winter ducks such as Wigeon and Pintail starting to show as well as the first returning Pink Footed Geese by the middle of the month.

                 Heres a few local sightings from the last 2 year Septembers, mostly Fly Flatts, unless captioned otherwise.

                                    Brief and distant view of Green Sandpiper

                                          Short Eared Owls moving through

                                          11 Goosander over.

                                                         Single Pintail , TMR

                                                          Wigeon on Doe Park

                                           1 of 5 Black Redstart

                                         26 Wigeon landed on water, Fly Flatts + 2 Pintail.

                                            Black Redstart on the shore

                                       Plenty Stonechat passing through

                                    Osprey at Doe Park stayed several weeks

                          Spotted Flycatcher moving through as well as Whinchat, Gropper etc.

                                                  No shortage of Wheatear

So just a few of the birds to expect during September plus getting deeper into the gull season.

                        Once again today Ogden would have been heaving and also tomorrow if the weather is decent. Just 2 Swifts over Queensbury today and a few Common Gulls starting to arrive at Foxhill Park a little earlier than usual.

                     An amazing display yesterday evening over Black Dyke Mills chimney with swarms of hirundines circling the chimney top for about 20 minutes then suddenly all had gone. I text NK who is situated nearer than me and he informed me that the majority seemed to be House Martins. 

No re occurrence of that tonight.   

BS   
 

                     

Yellow Legged Herring gull for Ogden.

 

                  Going back to my blog report for Ogden on the 25th Aug the juv gull

                     showing the shadow around the eye turned out to be a juv 

                      Yellow Legged Herring gull.

                      It just goes to show how many Y.L.s are missed with one present on the

                         first day I,ve really checked through the juveniles.

                              This gull was confirmed by KM and MC, thanks to both.

No chance of a quick Ogden gull check today with a hot sunny weekend afternoon not being a recipe for birding Ogden.

               Amazingly a Spotted Redshank turned up at Leeshaw reservoir on the 26th Aug (BV) whilst ironically I had one at Fly Flatts last year on the 25th Aug, I wonder if it visited Fly Flatts?

BS