There had been a Sabine’s Gull
at Carr Vale Nature Reserve in Derbyshire since the 13th and David,
Ken, Roger and I were waiting for news before setting off. David called around 07:30 to say it was still
there and we were on our way from Roger’s just after 09:00.
We arrived on site at 09:50 in
the Stockley Trail car park and then walked south along the trails to reach the
south flash, which is where the bird was being seen. There was a small crowd assembled when we
reached the flash and the Sabine’s Gull was on the water feeding at quite close
range. We spent over an hour watching
the bird as it spent most of the time feeding on the flash but did fly around
on three occasions.
It was an adult, which was
showing signs of moulting into winter plumage.
The head was showing a considerable amount of white amongst the summer
greyish feathers with throat mainly white with just a few grey feathers and
there was no sign of the black neck ring.
Apparently adults have a partial moult from summer to winter plumage in
the northern hemisphere, which includes just head and body, with the head
usually not showing signs of moult until much later. There was some light brownish staining on the
underparts, which was possibly oil pollution that had perhaps triggered an
early moult cycle.
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's Gull
We walked back to the car park
more slowly and stopped several times to view the reserve from the viewing
areas. We saw a couple of Common Terns
over the main flash and we picked out a single Sand Martin amongst the more
numerous Swifts. We had heard a
Kingfisher whilst viewing the gull and Roger and I had a brief view of bird as
we reached the bridge near the sewage works.
There was also a couple of Chiffchaff and Blackcap singing and we also
heard a single Whitethroat and a Reed Warbler and an Oystercatcher flew over
several times.
On reaching the car park we
had a discussion about where we should go and after considering several options
we headed for Milldale, where we hoped we might find a Dipper.
It took much longer than
expected as initially we headed for the wrong village of Hope, which took us
into Chesterfield. Then once on the
right road we found part of it to be closed and had to work on an alternative
route and didn’t arrive at Milldale until 13:45 after ninety minutes drive,
which should have taken just over an hour.
After some lunch we walked
down the road to the River Dove and then walked south into Dovedale. We hadn't gone too far when Roger found a
Dipper on the far side of the stream, which then proceeded to provide some
excellent views, even if the light was rather poor.
Dipper
Dipper
We continued walking further downstream
and saw five Ravens enjoying the breeze on the top of the valley and Ken and I
saw a couple of Grey Wagtail fly up stream and David then heard a Marsh Tit,
which I then located.
As we walked back to the
village we had two Grey Wagtails, an adult and a juvenile, feeding on the
stream before they flew downstream and we saw the Dipper again and then a
second just before we reached the bridge.
As we walked back up the hill
to the car there was some light drizzle and we ran into some very heavy rain on
the latter stage of the journey home.
Whilst we hadn’t see a great number
of species today the Sabine’s Gull had made the trip well worthwhile and we had
also had a few nice sightings at Milldale.
No comments:
Post a Comment