Showing posts with label Lesser Black-backed Gull. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lesser Black-backed Gull. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 October 2008

30/09/2008

A quick after school trip for an hour produced to good quality Nonsuch birds, including a Nonsuch lifer for myself- Great Black-backed Gull.
1 Great Black-backed Gull (juv/1st winter type) over, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 1 Common Gull (1st of the winter excluding the July bird), 2 Grey Wagtails (second for Nonsuch), 2 Nuthatches, c3 Goldcrests, c3 Coal Tits, 9 Stock Doves, c15 Jackdaws

Saturday, 20 September 2008

What a day: 20/09/2008

This has probably turned out to be the best day at Nonsuch Park this year, if not ever, with two much needed and very exciting Nonsuch lifers for me and a lot of other good local patch birds.
Here are the highlights:

1 COMMON BUZZARD, flying north over at 4:43pm. 1 female PEREGRINE from the north then drifted towards Sutton mobbed, by presumably one of the regular, Hobbies which went into full blown high speed dives at the Peregrine. The former two are Nonsuch lifers for me. I expect the Peregrine was the Sutton bird. I saw another Peregrine from the same viewpoint, at Cheam Park, about 3 miles away, attacking a Gull (to no avail). I don't know if this is the same bird or not.

Above: Peregrine

Above: Common Buzzard

Also present today: 2 Green Woodpeckers (1 heard at the gardens and one flying over the enclosed area, no dogs area, 2 by the southern most car park), 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker (heard in the gardens), 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull (with Black-headed Gulls at Cheam Park), 14 Jays (all over), 17+ Jackdaws (mainly around the gardens), 1 Nuthatch (heard at the gardens), 4 Stock Doves (2 over main grassland area and 2 in dead tree near mansion house) , 1 Chiffchaff (in hedge at second no dogs area which is the enclosed area by the southern most car park), 7 Mistle Thrushes (open short grass area overlooked by the Cheam end car park) and 1 Blackcap (heard alarm calling by the first dogs area, the enclosed area near the Cheam end car park).

Saturday, 13 September 2008

13/09/2008

3 hours from around 2:30pm to 5:30pm gave me the following highlights at the park:

1 Little Owl, 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Nuthatch, c8 Green Woodpeckers, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, c3 Jackdaws, 1 Moorhen, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, c20 Ring-necked Parakeets.

Directions for anyone interested:

The Little Owl was in the thick young plantation adjacent to the gardens, near the mansion house.

The Kestrel was around the old oaks c200m north of the mansion house along the main concrete path.

The Sparrowhawk flew over the Cheam end car park and appeared to settle in the woods.

The Nuthatch was heard calling near the ponds.

The Green Woodpeckers were as follows: 2 near Cheam end car park, 2 at the first no dogs area near the aviary, 1 at the edge of the woods, 2 at the old oaks c200m north of the mansion house, 1 at the second no dogs area near the south car park. Though some of these could involve the same birds.

The Goldcrest was heard singing around the edge of the gardens from a conifer.

The Coal Tit was calling around the Cheam end car park

The Lesser Black-backed Gull stayed for 3 minutes (4:33pm-4:36pm) at ND2, my 8th record for the site.

The Jackdaws flew over the old oaks c200m north of the mansion house.

The Moorhen was heard amongst the Reeds at the ponds.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard calling from the area of scrub north of the ponds.

The Ring-necked Parakeets were all over the place.

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

26/8/08

Above: Treecreeper

Today's highlights: 1 Treecreeper (my second site record) (c200m north of mansion house), 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls over (my 7th site record), 41 Black-headed Gulls, 2 Kestrels, 2 Sparrowhawks, c5 Stock Doves, 1 Nuthatch, c40 Ring-necked Parakeets, 1 Mistle Thrush, 2 Jays, 3 Green Woodpeckers, c2 Goldcrest.

The Treecreeper was the first I've seen here for a few years and was in a large Tit flock. I guess this species is heavily under recorded at the park and they may well breed but it was a great bird. It froze when I stumbled upon it for the second time and allowed brilliant views.




Thursday, 21 August 2008

Rarer birds of Nonsuch Park

Just for the interest of it I searched through my Nonsuch records on birdtrack and found some of the rarer Birds for Nonsuch, that take a bit more searching, with just a few recent records. Here they are:
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 1 record
Wheatear 1 record
Grey Wagtail 1 record
House Martin 1 record
Pied Wagtail 3 records
Hobby 2 records
Lesser Black-backed Gull 6 records
Common Gull 8 records

Wednesday, 30 July 2008

29/7/08

A good day at the park with the highlights summarised below and given more detail at the bottom (rare patch visitors in bold, others are regular/seasonal but in low numbers or in the case of Ring-necked Parakeet, interesting)

1 Hobby, 20+ Ring-necked Parakeet, c200 Black-headed Gull, 3 juvenile Sparrowhawk, 6 Green Woodpecker, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 3 Mistle Thrush, 1 Stock Dove, 1 Song Thrush, 2 Moorhen , 16+ Herring Gulls over

Further details on the above:

The Hobby was seen flying low over the conifers near the aviary. Could be last year's juvenile that is summering here as a young non-breeder?
The Sparrowhawks were very vocal and were chasing eachother around the woods that border Nonsuch Park and Cheam Park.
Green Woodpeckers were mainly heard but good views were had of one at the second no-dogs area (ND2) which is the enclosed area that the southern most car park overlooks. The usual female and juvenile were feeding the the gardens. I still haven't seen the male.
Ring-necked Parakeets are becoming increasingly vocal now that breeding is finished and their numbers are boosted by the juveniles that I have seen quite often. They are easy to spot with their shorter tails.
Black-headed Gulls were at their highest so far this season with at least 102 at the playing field at Cheam Park (more birds constantly dropping in). A single 2nd summer Lesser Black-backed Gull joined them. Numbers of Black-headed Gulls were seen flying over and there were about 50 more feeding at the second no-dogs area (again, numbers constantly increasing).
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker flew into the gardens and started climbing a conifer.
3 Mistle Thrushes were present around the gardens.
1 Stock Dove was seen in flight around the main grassland area.
1 Song Thrush was heard singing near the ponds.
1 tiny and downy Moorhen was seen at the ponds and an adult was heard (second brood?)
Finally, 16+ Herring Gulls were seen flying over the site.

Finches today included a single Goldfinch over the second no-dogs area, about 20 Greenfinch throughout the whole site, and about 10 Chaffinch around the gardens and aviary. They were all very vocal and obvious today.