Warnham LNR - A Guernsey Gull

Gadwall - P. Shergold

Gadwall - P. Shergold

It has been pretty slow going at Warnham over the past few days but last night (28th Nov) produced 4 Little Egrets which came in to roost in the heronry. We regualrly have birds that winter with us and are mainly seen in the early morning and late evening however four birds is exceptional for us this early into the winter period.

Paul Shergold took some fantastic pictures of the pair of Gadwall which have been around the Reserve for a while now, however they are quite often on the golfcourse lakes or at the scrapes at the north end of the Reserve. Other highlights have mainly come from the wildfowl front with upto 23 Teal, several Shoveler, Pochard and an ever growing flock of Tufted Duck are now common place.

Herring Gull (1HN7) - Warnham LNR

The Millpond finally froze over this morning with the temperature reaching -5°C this as always meant there was a good collection of Gulls coming in to bath and rest on the ice. In amongst the gulls today was a colour-ringed bird which was ringed as an adult female in 2013 at Chouet Landfill site in Guernsey on the 23rd May 2013. It is quite amazing the distance the gulls we take for granted travel between feeding and breeding sites. This is of obvious note but what is most interesting is that this bird was also seen at at Warnham LNR on the 19/01/2015 so presumably this bird is accustomed to feeding at landfill sites and may well be using Warnham LNR and the nearby Warnham Landfill site for its wintering area. It is a fascinating story and look into a birds life, I wonder where the bird is summering, I suspect we will never know! For more information about the gull ringing which takes place in the Channel Islands why not check out the ringing groups very own website: http://guernseygulls.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Below is a map of the distance and direction that the Herring Gull has travelled:

1HN7 - Journey from Guernsey

Warnham LNR

Finally the water level has started to drop on the Reserve and the muddy margins we created in the autumn are starting to appear and look suitable for wading birds. Whilst sitting in the Tern Hide this afternoon I noticed a wader drop in to the Swan Island Reedbed. It immediately vanished though my first thoughts were Green Sandpiper but I thought it was strange I couldn't see the bird on the island. Soon enough I realised that the wader was in fact a Common Snipe which had looked pale due to the sunlight. It stayed all afternoon and allowed a few visitors to catch up with this scarce species for the Reserve. 

Herring Gull - Overgrown bill

Elsewhere on the Reserve we also had a visit from a rather unusual looking gull. The first-winter Herring Gull above has for some reason developed an overgrown upper mandible. It didn't seem to be affecting the bird in any way however and probably serves it quite well in being able to open tin cans at the tip!

In Millpond Plantation on Tuesday we had Horsham GreenGym pay us another visit to help with the woodland thinning just off the first boardwalk. Fuelled by tea, coffee and biscuits we managed to get plenty done dramatically opening up the woodland floor. Most of the bigger timber was left on site to be extracted at a later date and the brash was burnt on a very impressive fire.