Remember to check all birds like this carefully though – you never know what may be present and the differences between pipit species are slim:
Passerines have been the big story this week – lots of siskin (pictured here) have been feeding on the cones along with successive waves of crossbills:
Check all long-tailed tit flocks carefully too:
These goldcrest were some of at least ten in the D woods yesterday:
However with the number of yellow-browed warblers on the coast only ten miles away – pay close attention both for these and firecrests. A late blackcap was the best find yet.
A good tip for all those reporting rarities – get a picture regardless of the quality as Tom Lowe did here (behind the coot!):
Thursday’s garganey was only seen by Tom, but a picture is irrefutable. Seen by several though today were an egyptian goose on Struncheonhill and latterly D res found by Eric C, where a female red-crested pochard was observed most of the day found by John H.
We have also had golden plover over Watton and peregrine over North Marsh, along with four black-tailed godwit in addition to the usual curlew:
However likely the rarest bird this week was found on the WeBS count this morning by Dave Ware – a bar-tailed godwit resting on South Marsh East. They never normally stray in-land, although common on the coast, and this is the first record since D res was drained in 2007. Rather dodgy ‘phone-bino’d’ pic here:
Better may follow on Dave’s blog where he has pics from my old stomping ground at Normanby too.
Winter arrived truly in the shape of three whooper swans late on seen by Erich over D, and redwing and fieldfare are now widespread.
Both Tony and Rory have photos on the way from today’s activities – along with a sneak peak of some different takes of Tophill on Tony’s Flickr stream.
Here from Saturday were a couple of end of season moths – november moth:
And large wainscot:
The Tophill Low gull roost
Unfortunately though we didn’t make Autumnwatch on Friday, but the gulls should still not be snubbed. The main spectacle starts every evening around 3pm between September and March when a trickle of gulls start arriving from surrounding farmland, coasts and landfill sites in every direction:
After a brief wash in the reservoir they then congregate on the open farmland around the reserve to preen – Decoy fields next to D res are a favourite but it can move to the access road fields or East of the river on occasion:
Just before dusk we get ‘the big lift’ when all birds not already on the water for the night simultaneously arise in a great spectacle – turning the sky white…
…before dropping onto the sanctuary of the reservoir for the night:
And even when it’s frozen:
So here are the main players – common gull:
And black-headed gull:
Both these species make up the bulk of the roost – currently around 15,000 birds but this can swell to 40,000 in winter. According to WeBS league tables this puts us in the top 15 UK sites for black-heads and top 3 for commons. We also make the top 3 for our annual little gull passage – but this is a July/August phenomenon. However there are always other species mixed in – great black-backed gulls with their black uppers and pink legs are at their maximum now:
These birds are assumed to mostly come from Scandinavian breeding grounds – as evidenced by the ringing return from a deceased bird rung at Lista in southern Norway as a chick:
Lesser black-backed gulls are now sub-siding as most move south for winter – charcoal grey uppers and yellow legs:
We also get herring gulls too (pale grey / pink legs below) – with Scandinavian race fairly regular too:
Another infrequent (though seen this week) bird is the yellow-legged gull generally from Mediterranean regions – much like the pale herring gulls but with yellow legs like lesser-black-backed:
Kittiwakes occasionally drop in during summer, but mediterranean gulls are regular all winter – up to four mixed in recently. These demonstrate the similarity to black-headed gulls but note the erect stance, heavy set bill – and crucially white wings devoid of black markings bar a small leading edge:
Which brings us on to ‘white-wingers’; usually describing arctic species which we occasionally get on strong northerlies in mid winter – like this glaucous gull earlier in the year:
We have also had iceland gull this year – but beware of leucistic or albino birds like this tricky common gull last year:
This completes our line up to date excepting Terry Richardson’s franklin’s gull a few years ago – a trans-atlantic vagrant.
And obviously all this lot attracts the peregrine - primarily after black-headed's:
Leaving many 'angel-wings' everywhere on site:
They may not be TV stars - but the gull roost is there every night – often unwatched, so if you are getting withdrawal from the gulls of Bempton now they’ve left, why not sit with a flask and a scope and see what you can find?... After all caspian gull carries most bets here as the next addition to the Tophill list…
If you fancy an intro, on Sunday the 30th of October we will be running our popular 'roost walk' event starting at 4pm to look at gulls, corvids, curlew and geese.
And in addition if you want to stay warm then why not pop along to Beverley Naturalist's this Tuesday night (18th) for a talk from wildlife photographer Geoff Trinder. It starts at 7:30pm at St. Mary's Church Hall in the shadow of Beverley Minster - admission is £3.50 including refreshments - new faces are always welcome.
