Avocets, Terns and Gulls at Rye Harbour

Once again the Avocets are the star of the show this week - I captured this video of two pairs of them fighting! Ironically their offspring seem to all be getting along fine, but I'm sure they'll learn from their parents soon enough!

Although the chicks do spend time on their own now, they're never far from their parents, and follow them closely some of the time:

I was fortunate to get a few pictures of one of the adults flying:

They weren't the only birds flying though, I also got this Little Egret (which doesn't look so little when it's in flight!):

and also some Sandwich Terns:

This Cormorant had other ideas, preferring to head downwards... Watch the video to see how long it dives underwater for! I now understand why they spend time sat around with their wings spread out to dry!

The Common Terns now have their chicks hatched:

I think the Sandwich Terns do too, but the shrubs on their island have grown up so much I can't see them any more! The Black Headed Gull offspring are now heading into the juvenile stage:

But this doesn't stop them annoying their parents by begging for food!

Some of them have hatched much later though, and are still tiny:

You can see the difference between them and their peers that are just a few weeks older here:

The adults meanwhile are continuing to model ideal gull behaviour for their offspring...

Finally, I got my first picture of a Linnet at Rye Harbour, though it's not as sharp as I would like...

and I also saw a Sparrow, with its beak stuffed full of food! :-)

Anyway that's all for now. I've been busy up at the woods too, fixing tracks now they've dried out, and processing seasoned wood into logs ready for winter. Doesn't make for exciting photos though!

Mike

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Common Terns and Sandwich Terns mating at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

After our last trip to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, I resolved to visit about once a week to see the progress of the birds nesting and the chicks emerging. Well, the Black Headed gulls are still there, and making an awful lot of noise!

I took a short video so you can get an idea of the racket they're making:

Some of them seem to have got a bit carried away with their nest building....

The gulls are now sharing the islands with Terns, some of which are mating:

Again, a short video:

This weekend I learned how to tell the difference between a Common Tern and a Sandwich Tern, both of which were present. Here's a Common Tern, which has smooth head feathers and an orange beak with a black tip:

while at the top right of this picture (click for a larger version on Flickr) are Sandwich Terns, whose head feathers look like spiky hair and whose beaks are black with a yellow tip.

Looking forward to seeing some chicks hatching soon!

Mike

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Terns and Gulls at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

Following on from my previous post, I also went down to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve near sunset to try out the new camera down there and see how well it did in lower light. Combined with the long Tamron lens I got last year, it did a very nice job of catching these two Common Terns, one with a fish in its beak:

The main wildlife attraction down there at the moment is the Black Headed Gulls, which are nesting on the islands in the lakes:

This one looks like he's making a speech, and the others are listening!

"I'm coming in to land, get out of the way!"

I couldn't see any eggs yet, and some birds were still mating:

There was one which didn't seem to have found a partner, so was going around trying to mate with any other bird sat on a nest, which didn't go down too well:

Unsurprisingly some fights developed, and I got this sequence of photos:

There was also a bird with a nest on a floating raft of some sort, and although there was easily space there for a couple more nests, it was defending its territory vigorously!

I did also try a few 'arty' shots, at an earlier time of day when there was more light, such as this HDR one:

and also a few selective colour ones:

Looking forward to getting down there again soon and looking to see if the gulls have had chicks...

Mike

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Common Terns fishing

I took a few photos on the beach at Camber Sands yesterday, of Common Terns fishing as the tide was going out - they seem to find plenty of fish in the shallow water at this point. They'd fly upwind hunting, then zoom downwind to the start of the feeding patch and work their way back up again.
First, here's a few of them flying around - they chase each other quite a bit.
It's quite obvious when they're looking for fish, as they cruise along looking down:
and then when they spot one...
You can just about see the fish in the bird's beak in the last one. I was especially pleased to get the pictures of two diving for fish at the same time - purely by chance, as I was only following one of them with the camera!

Mike

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