The Lincolnshire Bird Club

A very wet place this morning which improved slightly PM

10 spoonbills on the Mere - 2 with yellow tags. I with yellow, red & blue (10:30ish)
Then 7 on Jacksons Marsh ! with yellow , red & green (green being a trick of the light???) 12:30 ish
14:00 ish none on Jacksons Marsh
Walk down to the Mere produced 13 altogether with one of the yellow tagged birds being missing
14 Spoonbills excellent

Other highlights - a huge flock on knot even though I didn't venture down to the beach
little egret 6
spotted redshank 1
green sandpiper 3
little ringed plover 10
greenshank 5
avocet c30
lapwing 250
curlew c100
whimbrel 1 on the Mere
Marsh Harrier (female)
kestrel 4
swallow c250
great spotted woodpecker 1
shelduck 25 juveniles on Jacksons
snipe 1
black tailed godwit 200

Three spoonbills (of whihc two were definitely immatures) were seen arriving off the sea at 0730 ish this morning.

All 14 were on the Mere this evening - all mostly asleep.

Interesting to note the degree of black feathering on the immatures and the difference in eye colour. It would suggest that there are immatures from different generations; 2cy and 3cy maybe- possibly even this years juvs ?

I need to do some reading!

This mornings wader highlights included c 39000 knot, c 2400 sanderling at the roost

wood sand on the Mere

Also manx shearwater north per Nick Tribe

Cheers

Kev

just a short report today a wet one this morning but better this after noon . all the bird counting as you see from chris . nice to see a smileing face on a very wet morning . nice to put a face to person from the bird club . hope to see soon chris . as for kev if you come down on sunday i will find some good books for you read .mybe just like the email i send you a few weeks ago . ? or mybe knot as the boss is is down at gib point over the weeked . john lusby .

The colour ringed birds present are all immatures - 1 3cy bird and 1 2cy bird and 1 so far unknown.

Kev, having seen this year’s immature at Cley NNT on Thursday morning, I would note the following which may be helpful:

1) Birds born this year still have very obvious shorter bills and appear to spend the whole time begging food from adults, their plumage is pure (daz) white
2) Birds born last year (in Holland?) have full size bills but retain the pure (daz) white plumage
3) Adult birds are a ‘greyer’ white that either the 1st year or this year’s birds

When the birds are in a group, these small differences in colour are very easy to see..

Andrew

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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

Only 13 spoon bills on Saturday
Also on the Mere
wood sandpiper
spotted redshank

2 common scoter on the sea
plus 3 gannet 1 artic skua
also noted but not by me - bonxie, fulmar & mans shearwater

other highlights
marsh harrier just the one for me but apparently 5 noted
High tide was specacular especially the kno

Fifteen spoonbills at one stage this afternoon ssen by M Grantham, A Bellamy and D Matthews.

The flock included a juvenile - as described by Andrew above, begging for food from the accompanying adult - the two birds left after a short while.

Cheers

Kev

Sunday
15 Spoonbills present
1 Spotted Redshank
3-4 GreenSandpipers
2 Common Sandpipers
6+ Whimbrel
30-40,000 Knot

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http://birdmanbirds.blogspot.com/

BWP describes five plumage types apart from nestlings: Ad breeding, ad non-breeding, juv, imm winter and imm summer. The juv shows extensive black at the wingtips, tips of the primaries, secondaries and primary coverts as you can see in neil Smith's excellent shots
http://www.lincsbirds.co.uk/album/displ ... pos=-13028
Adults tend to have all white wings
http://www.lincsbirds.co.uk/album/displ ... pos=-13027
and there are birds in between which are probably 1st summer birds though BWP says 'some specimens inotherwise full breeding plumage retain black wing-tips'
The full range can be seen in this flock though maybe not in much detail here
http://www.lincsbirds.co.uk/album/displ ... pos=-13026

John

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Lincolnshire Birds https://www.flickr.com/photos/120340949 ... 8078912016
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Contact: recorder_north@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

John - if your original photo of the flying flock can be enlarged enough to show the colour rings it would show a 3 cy and a 2 cy wing pattern.

Here's an article from Surfbirds about ageing Spoonbills
http://www.surfbirds.com/mb/Features/sp ... -0402.html

Ed I've sent you an email with the full pic so that you can see for yourself. Let me know if it arrives and could you answer the other email and pm at the same time?
John

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Lincolnshire Birds https://www.flickr.com/photos/120340949 ... 8078912016
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Contact: recorder_north@lincsbirdclub.co.uk