Sand Martins herald in spring with a touch of Spoonbill

 

With nothing bird wise to temp me to drive any great distance I popped down to Slimbridge again on Friday for a relaxed days birding. Making use of the members early access privilege I arrived before normal opening time and made my way to the Robbie Garnet hide where the sky seemed full of Sand Martins, an uplifting and welcome sight after such a dreadful wet winter. 

 

Taking pictures of Hirundines is, to say the least, challenging, mainly due to the speed they move at. The more distant they are the more chance you have of getting focus to lock on but the smaller the image and hence the larger the crop and noise. This is compounded by the very high shutter speeds required, typically 1/4000 sec which almost always equates to high ISO and hence noise. To be honest this is 10% skill and 90% luck but if you shoot enough a few will be in focus as per this typical example.  

From the hide I could also see an adult Spoonbill that has been present at Slimbridge since mid-February. There have been many avian losers from climate change and our seemingly endless destruction of the environment but Egrets and Herons belong to the small group of beneficiaries. A warming climate and the endless hard work of wildlife charities providing more and improved wetland habitats has seen this elegant group of birds spread north and west onto our shores. It is now eminently possible to see three Egret species, Little, Great and Cattle, all in one day in the UK, something that simply wasn’t imaginable a few years back when all three were considered great rarities. All three now breed in some numbers in the UK.

 

The Eurasian Spoonbill is another large wading bird that has recently recolonised the UK. Although they bred in East Anglia during medieval times, Spoonbills had not bred in Britain for over 300 years until 2010, when a small colony became established  on the Norfolk coast. Spoonbills are a perfect example of “exactly what it says on the tin”. There have a somewhat bizarre spatula-like bill which they swing from side to side through shallow pools of water. Their remarkable bill is packed full of sensors attuned to the tiniest vibrations used to located its prey of mainly beetles, crustaceans, worms, small fish, tadpoles, and frogs. It really is quite an unmistakable bird! It is all white except for dark legs, black bill with a yellow tip, and a yellow breast patch resembling a Pelican. In breeding plumage it has a long white crest which extends down its neck.

 

The Spoonbill was initially quite distant but soon flew to the water close to the hide where it performed exceptionally well as it swung its huge spoon shaped bill slowly and majestically back and forth through the water. Occasional it would make a sudden dash to catch an unfortunate creature attempting to escape.

After a couple of hours I made my way back to the Rushy hide to look for a Spotted Redshank that had been on site for some time. It was feeding at the back of the Rushy and was just starting to moult into summer plumage. The Spotted Redshank is a bird that goes through a completely metamorphic spring moult from a rather unremarkable pale appearance to being an almost all over iridescent black including its bill and legs. As it breeds in the Artic it is quite hard to see it in England in breeding plumage, they quickly moult back to winter plumage after breeding. 

There was a pair at Slimbridge in June 2022 which were almost in breeding plumage and here is a pic of one of these birds for comparison.

         

Moving onto the South Lake discovery hide I spotted two distant Cattle Egrets partially obscured behind a big clump of sedge. On the lake itself an unusual Black-headed Gull was dozing in the sun. This particular bird had a very marked pink breast, a variation that is seen in a very small minority of gulls and which is believed to be diet related.

 

I spent a little while going through the Teal on both sides of the reserve looking for an American vagrant called a Green Winged Teal with no success. A combination of many hundreds of Teal spread around the reserve and lots of places to hide really mean you need lots of eyes on the job to be in with a chance. Typically the Green Winged Teal showed very well in front of a hide the next day! No probs – I’ve seen plenty before.

 

Back home the garden and paddocks are still sodden – has there ever been a winter when it has rained for so long? Much of the crop in  the local  farmer’s fields has rotted before it even germinated. I’ve finally managed to get my first early potatoes in the ground some 4 weeks later than usual. Can we please please have some dry weather now!!!

Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!