.....or more appropriate 'Natural Born Killers'. The Leighton Moss Greater Black - backed Gull adult and juvenile pictured above of which one of the adults killed an intruding bird of the same species last year when it foolishly landed on the island opposite the Public Hide which had been claimed as strictly their territory for the purposes of bringing up a family, and which decided to stay put and face the consequences the result of which resulted in its demise. Also on the island today were 5 Greenshank and 26 Redshank all of which made hasty departures on more than one occasion when any one of the three gull's made as much as a wing flap. A Buzzard and Marsh Harrier were noted as was a pair of Great - crested Grebe to which I must add, in all the years I visited LM I never yet observed this species with young......have they ever bred here I ask myself.
From the Griesdale Hide I noted 5 Little Egret, a male Marsh Harrier gave excellent views flying past the hide, and 3 Red Deer stag's seen. At the back of the pool along the hedgerow at the bottom of the field I watched c.60 'finches' which I never did get to grips with before they soon disappeared but were considered to have been Goldfinch in which case my third 50/60 flock in two days.
From the Eric M'cbe Hide birds to note were, 12 Greenshank, a Spotted Redshank, a Common Sandpiper, 4 Little Egret, no more than 6 Black - tailed Godwit, and a Little Gull (think there are still two here yet) the smallest gull in the world and staying on the EM Complex for an unprecedented period of time......Looks like the RSPB bug may have taken a hold of me just now but over the years this place has turned up so many scarce and rare birds for my records that I just enjoy a good 'rake' around and wonder what next and when.
Some editing required here and whilst I have no intention of covering up my error I'm truly grateful to my informant re this matter. In the brief headline story in this post apparently it was the intruding Greater Black - backed Gull which killed the resident male then nested. This makes the whole thing even more intriguing and interesting and is the perfect example of the complexities of bird behaviour of which I have a large number of examples in my records some of which I intend to bring to this blog at times.
Pete. Another good day out for you at Leighton Moss with plenty of variety. Last year Great Crested Grebes had a nest right in front of the Public Hide on the small reed covered island just yards from the hide. I don't know whether or not they had young. They would have been vulnerable with the Great Black Backs around.
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ReplyDeleteThanks again for your interest Brian. Keep the pic's coming, my library is building up nicely thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteBy the way the previous deleted comment was due to a pretty bad spelling mistake which I wasn't prepared to go public with.