04 May 2012

A nice addition to the Westport year list was a Cuckoo found by Nick this morning singing in the reserve, this takes the year list too 103, also present, a single Reed Warbler on the top pool, Jeff Jones had the first one to return the previous day, two Little Ringed Plover and a Common Sandpiper also the Whitethroat population is building rather slowly with three on the old sewage works this morning.

Below are a couple of photo's from Phil Jones of the Kittiwake and a nice summer plumage Dunlin which were present on the previous day.

I made a visit this afternoon from 15.15 til 17.30, it was quite cool, and felt much cooler than the 15c on the Steelite clock, probably due to the NE breeze, cloud coverage was total with the odd light shower.

The first thing I noticed was the huge number of Hirundines and Swifts, by far the most numerous were House Martins which outnumbered Swallows by at least 70%, Swift were also in good numbers esp hawking insects over the grass bank, it was great as they whizzed past your head within inches and you could hear the rush of wind as they shot past, even funnier was watching my dog Misty as she tried to jump up and catch one!

On the boating lake there were two groups of Canada Geese goslings, the first had eight goslings and the second just two which were notably older than the first group, there was also ten Mute Swans on here plus four on the main lake and two in the reserve, the breeding pair on the main lake has had the nest fenced off by the council but I fear it's too late as when I walked past the parents were sat on the water at the side of the nest while a Carrion Crow pecked (unsuccessfully) at the eggs.

On the Warbler front six Chiffchaff were heard, four Blackcap and four Whitethroat one of which was along the reserve side of the main lake, I didn't hear any Willow Warblers though which has been the case for three straight visits now, Pied Wagtail numbers have dropped off with just two seen on the front of the main lake, on the main lake, just 16 Tufted Duck, five Great Crested Grebe and two groups of Coot with young, one of which had a healthy count of nine chicks, the other group only consisted of two but again like the Canada Geese were much older.

In the reserve a single Coal Tit and Willow Tit were on the top pool but no sign of the Reed Warbler from the last few days, a Buzzard was being mobbed by Carrion Crows over the old gas works, two Mistle Thrush were on the old sewage works along with two Collared Dove and lastly two Starling were on the playing field as I left.

02 May 2012

After a fantastic April were 82 species were recorded, May has a lot to live up to, but things have started brightly.

This morning Nick found a adult Kittiwake on the main lake and a Dunlin on the boating lake, the Kittiwake is a first for the year and took the Westport year list too 100 species for the year.

At around 18.45 Phil Jones rang me to say he'd found a Wheatear on the old gas works, I was half way through my tea, but I put it away and made my way over too Westport, after all it was a year tick and I need as many as I can get at the moment as I'm so far behind the Westport total this year.

I reached the old gas works, having noticed at least 40+ Swift over the main lake on my way in, I could see Phil near the old buildings and made my way towards him, I eventually picked the Wheatear up and we both thought it looked quite large and with the buffing underneath wondered if it could actually be a 'Greenland' race of Wheatear.

I managed to get a few half decent shots off and have a look below and see what you think, the one of it's back is sadly blurred but gives an idea of the colouration.

As I was leaving I noticed a large raptor flying over the main lake, it was a male Peregrine and another Westport year tick for me, so not a bad late evening visit at all.

I will get the overview of April done in the next day or two, and a update of the 'blast from the past' and highlights from May 2011.

30 April 2012

I don't normally go down to Westport when I'm on a early shift at work, nine hours on my feet at work and I'm dead on my feet when I get home, but when I'd finished and saw the text saying Dave Kelsall had seen a Lesser Whitethroat at lunchtime, I had to give it ago, esp as I haven't seen a Lessser Whitethroat at Westport for nearly two years and it would be a good one to add too the year list.

The weather was ideal, with sunny skies and the warmth on your back was lovely, there was a pleasant SE breeze but in the distant the cloud looked rather darker, it was a slightly longer visit than I'd planned from 16.30 til 18.00.

I made my way straight up along the canal to the overflow by the old sewage works, which is were Dave had seen the Lesser Whitethroat, with the sun shining brightly on the area, there were plenty of Warblers singing in the area, two Whitethroat, four Chiffchaff and three Blackcap, but no sign of the Lesser Whitethroat, I spent a good 40 minutes in the area and had a good look around the old sewage works but sadly there was no sign, there was a good number of Butterflies out and about in the sunshine and these included my first ever Brimstone at Westport, there was also a few Comma's, Speckled Wood and Tortoiseshells.

I made may way back to the main lake to have a look what was on here, at this point the weather did a complete 'u' turn and the wind was whipped up as a heavy rain storm went through, it only lasted for five or ten minutes but it was like a tornado going through, the wind was so strong.

Sadly it didn't bring anything onto the main lake, on here I had two Great Crested Grebe, six Mute Swan (two were on the boating lake)  and 18 Tufted Duck, just nine House Martins and same number of Swallows went through with a single Swift, along the top of the main lake a Great Spotted Woodpecker, Bullfinch and two Mistle Thrush and as I made my way home a pair of Canada Geese were on the canal with two very young Goslings.

Below are a couple of photo's from Phil Jones from Saturday with one of the last views of the Common Tern and a family of Coot.

29 April 2012

A horrid morning to walk around the park, it was heavy rain for the entire visit and with a moderate NE wind the temp was only 5c with a wind chill of -1!!! visit from 05.45 til 07.45.

Two Little Ringed Plover were on the grass bank but no sign of the third from yesterday, just four Mute Swan now remain with a pair in the reserve and a pair at the top of the main lake, this pair have left the previous nest and made a new one a bit further along, 15 Starling were feeding on the playing field, at least they were enjoying this weather as it helped them get the grubs as they are brought to the surface with the heavy rain, on the main lake, 21 Tufted Duck and just three Great Crested Grebe, not surprisingly Warblers were thin on the ground this morning with just four Blackcap, a Chiffchaff, two Willow Warbler and still the single Whitethroat on the old sewage works.

A Common Sandpiper was along the edge of the boating lake, probably the same one I had seen yesterday afternoon, the only bird of note in the reserve was a single Jay that had us guessing for a few minutes with a unusual call, lastly back over the main lake and a group of 32 Swallow went through.

28 April 2012 (Part 2)

After Nick had missed the Pied Flycatcher early this afternoon, I was sure it was still present, as it had been found at around 6am and was still present just before lunch' I just felt that it would stick for the day, when something is passing through it normally hangs around for no more than an hour or two, but this had been around for nearly six hours and I just thought it would stick until at least tonight.

So with this in mind I decided too head on down at around 17.30, I spent around an hour just walking up and down the canal side of the main lake, from the visitor centre to the top of the old sewage works and back, sadly their was no sign of the Pied Flycatcher and I sent Nick a text with the disappointing news, other species around the park included a male Sparrowhawk that shot over the main lake a couple of times possibly after one of the 280+ Swallows with the odd few House Martins, a couple of Willow Warblers were on the canal side along with a Blackcap and a Chiffchaff.

There was a single Mistle Thrush by the visitor centre and one on the old gas works, I flushed a single Common Sandpiper from the edge of the main lake and later it was on the jetty along with three Little Ringed Plover, the highest count so far this year, there was also at least ten Pied Wagtails along the front of the main lake but sadly no White Wagtail.

I had a look for the Common Tern which was in bad shape this morning but their was no sign, either it had moved on (doubtful), died (very possible) or picked up by the RSPCA (???), before heading home I decided to have one last look at the Ted Heath Rock area for the Pied Flycatcher, the large Sycamore was full of small birds and unbelievably the very first bird I put my bins on was the Pied Flycatcher, where had it been all afternoon??

I immediately rang Nick but he cut me off on both occasions, so I guessed he was driving and sent him a text, I text George who said he was on his way, and I said I'd wait for him too help him locate it, it was a tense ten or so minutes, and felt a lot longer, to my surprise Nick arrived and after a few frantic minutes he managed to get onto it (I think a long awaited Westport tick for him), he had to shot off though as he'd left the family shopping in Tesco (free advent), next to arrive was a huffing and puffing Phil Locker followed by the Cathy's, again after a few frantic minutes they managed to see it just as George arrived, eventually the Pied Flycatcher came down low and gave excellent views from no more that 20/30 feet away, with everyone happy with there views it was time for home and my takeaway tea, roll on tomorrow (if I can get up that is!!).

28 April 2012

Well the last few days have just carried on as those previous 24 hours I mentioned in the previous post, back to the 26th and late afternoon an extremely tired Common Tern (Phil Jones) was found on the post off the jetty on the main lake.

The Common Tern was still present this morning although it is barely clinging to life, it was just sat on the edge of the boating lake among the Ducks and Geese as a family chucked bread at it, you could hear them saying how poorly it looked and I really can't see it getting through the night, the photo below by Pete Lunt shows it still in half good condition on the 27th, while I was down Westport I saw Jeff Jones who said it had just been flying around feeding so you never know!

Also around on the late afternoon of the 26th were 10+ Swift and the White Wagtail was still around.

The 27th added a Little Egret and two Ravens heading south, both were seen by Jeff Jones and Pete Lunts with Pete managing to get a photo of the Little Egret as it flew over.

Highlight of the 27th had to be the male Yellowhammer found by Colin on the old sewage works, I haven't got a clue how many records their are of Yellowhammer at Westport (help please Nick) but they are very rare here with nothing listed in the 'Birds of Westport 2002' which has a section in the back listing all the rare/scarce birds from previous years. Early afternoon and Dave Kelsall had a female Peregrine go through south, this is the second record of the year, and the White Wagtail was still present, photo below is by Pete Lunt.

On to today and another rather good day around the park, first thing Phil Jones had, Common Sandpiper, Cormorant, Whitethroat and the now rather morbid looking Common Tern, this was followed by a Wheatear (Jeff Jones) on the old gas works which then flew out of sight over the railway line, he then topped this with a superb male Pied Flycatcher, along the canal side of the main lake, mainly sticking to a tall Sycamore tree opposite Ted Heath Rocks, this again is a very rare record for Westport with it being a Westport tick for most of the regulars, most of those that had seen Pied Flycatcher here before reckoned it was nearly 20 years ago since they saw there last down here!!

It looks like Alan Hancock and myself just got down in time as when Nick & George managed to get down there was no sign despite an extensive search all along the canal side of the main lake and up to the top of the old sewage works. While I was down there briefly I also managed to add two other year ticks to my Westport list with the rather poorly Common Tern, which I'd mentioned earlier and their was also a couple of Swift among the good numbers of Swallow and House Martin, I also noticed a small family of newly hatched Canada Geese Goslings along the edge of the boating lake.

26 April 2012

What a quite incredible 24+ hours at Westport from yesterday morning into early this morning, sadly as per usual I missed it all and as per usual all my own doing, although having to go into work at 3pm for a nine hour shift didn't help, what help even less was forgetting to take my phone off silent and missing all the text messages until it was all too late for me, what made it worse for me was missing out on a Westport tick as well!

So it all started rather quiet and normal, since my find of the Glaucous Gull back in February it's been a very quiet period for Westport, something Nick and myself had been talking about the day previously as we walked around the lake. Nick had seen two Little Ringed Plovers plus the singing Whitethroat and seven Swallows went through, all early doors before he left for work, the weather was wet and windy which was something that just didn't let up for the whole day until late afternoon.
At 09.45 Jeff Jones had a White Wagtail in heavy rain, this was the third too go through in the last week with Nick and myself having one earlier in the week, 15 minutes later and Jeff had added a Arctic Tern to the list which was a first for the year and not to be unexpected really as they had been going through the country in the 100's the previous day.

At 12.30 the legend that is Bill Low made a rather rare visit too Westport (let's see you back on a regular basis mate), he struck gold with four adult Little Gulls, a Westport tick for me, I may be wrong on this but I think it's the first at Westport since one on 2 October 2006, and although again there have been good numbers moving through the country these were far from being expected, the Arctic Tern was also still present, by 15.25 Arctic Tern numbers had increased to twelve but sadly the Little Gulls had departed, it was just before this that I happened to check my phone before leaving it in the locker at work, cry, close, I was very very close, if I'd not left my phone on silent I would of made the Little Gulls and Arctic Terns before getting into work.

But Westport wasn't finished with yet 15.20 saw the first Swift of the year along with the two Little Ringed Plover again and at 15.45  the Arctic Terns numbers were up to 21 as seen by Dave Kelsall, another Westport regular who hasn't been around as much recently, so come on Dave let's have you back among the fold mate, at 16.50 Dave also had two Yellow Wagtails on the grass bank, another Westport year tick and also with them was a White Wagtail, same as earlier in the morning or another one, with the way the day was going I wouldn't be surprised if it was a new one, all in all it really was a cracking day at Westport, probably one of the best days their has ever been down there and I was stuck at work, although I would of made the Little Gulls that I'm sure of, lesson learnt, probably not knowing me!!

This morning Nick kept the good news going with a Osprey flying low over nearby Bradwell Wood, although not at Westport it's very close and who knows what this afternoon down there will bring, were will I be at work!!

If anyone has any photo's from yesterday I would be very grateful if I can have a copy or two for the blog, thanks in advance.