Avocets and their chicks at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

I reckon the Avocets and their chicks are the most interesting birds to watch at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve at the moment. Check them out in the this video, the chicks are very cute!

The adult Avocets are quite striking in appearance:

When they're feeding they walk through a shallow pool trawling the bottom for things to eat:

Sometimes it looks like they're really digging deep!

I was watching two adults with two chicks. Some of the time they stayed close together:

But they were also happy to be separated by quite a distance, though I assume the parents were keeping a close eye out for danger.

The chicks really do look like they are carefully watching and copying the parents!

I did of course go and see how the Black Headed Gull chicks were doing. They're growing up a bit, but unlike the Avocets, they prefer to sit and wait for the parents to bring food to them.

They have at least figured out that they can go and get a drink by themselves!

I wasn't sure about this pair of gulls, maybe they weren't breeding this year, or weren't successful?

They do look to be good friends though!

I saw a Redshank again, and this time it landed right in front of the bird hide, so I got some better pictures:

A Tufted Duck was around again too:

And an Oyster Catcher too:

I was also pleased to get a photo of a Sandwich Tern in flight:

This isn't such a good photo, but I wanted to include it because the Tern appears to not really be looking where it is going!

Finally, a pleasant sunset as I walked back to the car...

Mike

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Time-lapse video: chainsawing logs with the Truncator

Earlier this week I took the opportunity to make a time-lapse video of chainsawing logs with the Truncator. I collected a load of 18-month old Hornbeam, Holly and Hazel from the woods:

Plus some ready cut pieces of Holly thrown into the back of the car:

Here's the setup back at home for processing the logs using the Truncator logging bench:

And here's the video, taken using my GoPro. Note some delays in the video while I use an axe to split logs that were too big...

I did initially experiment using an electric chainsaw a friend had passed on to me, running from our off-grid solar panels:

But it turned out to be a bit under-powered for the job, so I switched back to my petrol-guzzling Husqvarna 346xp. Still, worth trying the electric one - I might see if I can try out a more powerful one somewhere.

Mike

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Latest bird news from Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

This week's highlight is a Black Headed Gull regurgitating food for its chicks! (Including a slow-motion bit when another gull tries to steal the food)

There's a strange mix of Black Headed Gulls across the different islands in the reserve. Some have no chicks yet:

Others have chicks 1-2 weeks old:

While this floating enclosure has much older chicks in it:

My theory is that the best nest sites, which are furthest away from the banks and hides, get taken first, so they have the older chicks. No idea if that's what really happens though! This is my favourite gull picture of the day anyway:

We saw quite a few other different birds this time, such as Cormorants:

A tufted duck (right at the limit of the zoom range of my lens):

A Redshank, I think (also some distance off):

A Little Egret fishing in one of the tidal streams that flow in and our of the lagoons:

And also several Avocets. In these two photos there are Avocet chicks, but in the second one it's hard to spot at first!

I like these ones of an Avocet trawling for food...

And finally, a token non-bird photo - a Common Blue butterfly, at the inland side of the reserve:

More to come after our next visit...

Mike

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