Juv Yellow-Legged Gull, Creekmouth 23/7/16

Had a look locally on the Thames for Yellow legs today, firstly at Rainham where several adult birds were on the foreshore.  Had a couple of flyby juvenile birds fly east, but none hung around for any photo opportunities.

The afternoon proved more productive with this cracking juvenile first picked up on the tanks at Beckton sewage works before flying around almost checking me out along the creek.

Ringing Activities

Over the last couple of weeks I've managed to add a couple of new species to my ringing activities. Have had some very smart Common Tern chicks, which nest every year on the "tern rafts" on seventy acres lake up in the lea valley.  Just three birds were ringed on this visit with at least seven pairs still on eggs.

Black-headed gulls also breed on these rafts and we managed to colour ring 48 juveniles.

I also had the opportunity to ring two hand reared Swifts, you can read there remarkable story here:

http://www.camdennewjournal.com/kentish-town-swifts

More Raptor Ringing

Having ringed Peregrines last month which was gonna be hard to top,  I was very fortunate that PR had found the nest of a pair of Red Kites, nesting on our ringing site up in herts.  Even better when PR emailed me to ask me was if i was interested in ringing the young!!

Richard, our climber, had been in touch and was keen to get involved.  A great job he had done.

Three very docile birds were brought down and processed, absolutely amazing birds.  Hopefully these birds will stick around for us to enjoy.

White Faced Capuchins

The hotel grounds held good number of Howler Monkeys but my favourites were the group of White Faced Capuchins that could be seen in the nearby dry forest.

Unfortunately many of the hotel guest feed these despite being asked not to.....

Beach Life

A few more images from my recent trip to Costa Rica,  Spotted Sandpiper's were a daily occurrence along the beach with some days holding up to half a dozen birds of various plumage's.

Hudsonian Whimbrel was seen on a couple of days very early in the morning and was a new species for me.

Magnificent Frigate birds are a constant feature along the beach.

Peregrines

I was lucky enough to be involved in ringing some young Peregrines last week at a private site that Dave Mo monitors.  Three young birds were colour ringed, they were about two & a half weeks old and consisted of a male and two female birds.

Great news as last years attempt ended in failure.

She won't be happy with her initials when she grows up!!

Local Quality.

Fantastic birding was to be had at the end of last week.  Firstly on Thursday when a Great-White Egret graced the target pools at rainham, my third one at this site.  Andy finds a late colour ringed  Stone Curlew on wennington (again my third for site), and two Black Terns hawked over aveley pools.  All birds viewable from the serin mound at once!

Saturday afternoon saw me venture a little further east along the A13 to nearbye Vange RSPB to see both Black-winged stilt (pair off), and a superb female Red-footed falcon.  The latter my first for some years now since the seventy acres lake bird up in the lea valley.

Hopefully we will get another at rainham to complete my treble here to.

This little fledgling was along the cycle path at the west end of Rainham, I thought it was all alone until mum pheasant came out and attacked me Capercaillie style!