More Yellow-legged Gulls, Roe Deer at Chatsworth

 I've been back to look at the gulls in the Elton Common area and yesterday they were on and around the Y-Not Festival site. Talking to the people doing the clean up after the festival it seems the gulls have been finding plenty to scavenge around the site. 

I counted at least 700 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and found 7 adult type and a single juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls. I would love to know where they are from, and there must be a chance of finding one with a colour ring one day, perhaps the French Atlantic or even Mediterranean coast.

Yellow-legged Gulls -top two adults, bottom juvenile

Walking round Chatsworth a smart buck Roe Deer walked across the path which caused me to think how few I have seen there. They are now well established in Matlock Forest but seem scarcer further north.

Roe Deer - buck

Yellow-legged Gull - Pikehall

 The number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls has been steadily increasing in the recently mown cereal fields in the Elton Common area and today I saw at least two adult Yellow-legged Gulls with them, just beyond Pikehall.

The Yellow-legged Gulls breed on the continent and disperse north, post breeding, arriving on the Channel coast in early July with some continuing north. Most of my records are adult or sub-adult birds but it may be that younger birds are overlooked amongst the similar looking Lesser Black-backs.

Yellow-legged Gull - adult

Yellow-legged Gull - Chatsworth

Following last weeks Caspian I came across an adult Yellow-legged Gull today in the fields just north of Chatsworth House. It was present for about 30 minutes with around 50 Lesser Black-backed Gulls before the flock was disturbed and they moved off to the south. 

Adult Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls

I didn't see much else but a juvenile Great Northern Diver was reportedly on the river south of the House on Monday (30th October) which I would have loved to have seen.

A perched Red Kite and my first Yellow-legged Gull of the year

 Two adult Red Kites perched at Rowsley, close to where I saw the Osprey was a nice surprise. I haven't seen any juveniles this summer so I suspect it has not been a good breeding season for them locally. 

I see them perched very infrequently and usually hidden by foliage so this made a nice change.

Red Kite - adult

Early we been walking in Youlgrave, as we approached the village several parties of Mandarin Duck flew down the valley, in the end we counted 39 birds which was unusual for that location, perhaps they had roosted on the small lake.

Close to the lake I counted 350 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and, after checking them carefully, a single adult Yellow-legged Gull.

Most years I check to Lesser Black-backs which favour the fields between Winster and Newhaven but they have only been present in small numbers so far so I was pleased to find this Yellow-legged. 

Yellow-legged Gull - lower foreground with Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Adult Yellow-legged Gull showing the pale upper and underwing compared to Lesser

The Green Sandpipers at Chatsworth increased to three but weren't there yesterday when I checked and a Hobby this evening on Beeley Moor made a brief appearance this evening.

Mediterranean Gull and Common Shelduck - two new birds for the Darley Dale area

 Whilst the flooding causes major disruption and worse for those whose properties are directly affected it also creates new temporary habitat for wildlife. The area between Darley Dale and Darley Bridge at Four Lane Ends has flooded many times over the years and can attract large numbers of gulls.

Today the flooded area attracted a Common Shelduck, a bird that presumably flies up and down the valley occasionally, as they occur reasonably regularly at Middleton Moor. But this is the first record I'm aware of for the Darley Dale area.

Whilst looking through the gulls I passed over a bird with a jet black hood and pale silvery wings, an adult Mediterranean Gull and another new bird for the area. 

Interestingly, Simon recorded the first Mediterranean Gull of the year at Carsington Water yesterday and there must be a reasonable chance that this is the same bird.

He also had a 2nd winter Caspian Gull and Yellow-legged Gull amongst the 100 Herring Gulls, 40 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 20 Common Gulls and 150 Black-headed Gulls this afternoon.

Mediterranean Gull - adult in breeding plumage

Common Shelduck in the rain

A Curlew flew over whilst I was watching the gulls which is my first of the year here.

Who knows what birds might drop in if we had a permanent wetland.

Flooding at Four Lane Ends

Yellow-legged Gull and an unexpected Common Quail

 I went out early this morning to avoid the day-time high temperatures and headed for Elton Common to look for the gulls. James had said that around a hundred Lesser Black-backs were in a newly ploughed field at the Winster end of the Winster to Newhaven road yesterday. 

I found about 80 gulls just beyond Pikehall and the flock contained at least one adult Yellow-legged but they weren't in a great position for looking at them, so I took a few photos of the Yellow-legged and went up to Elton where there is a better vantage point for the fields. I hadn't been stopped long when I heard what sounded like a single call from a Common Quail. I walked around for a while a heard it call a couple more times which confirmed its identity but I couldn't tell where the call was coming from. I decided to drive up to the traditional area of Elton Common where quail are recorded most years, but having tried several times for them in May and June I wasn't too hopeful. 

As soon as I got out of the car the Common Quail called several times, much closer, from the wheat field with the derelict barn. I heard it several more times over the next hour but could only hear a single bird. Hopefully they have been there a while and could therefore be breeding.

Yellow-legged Gull - adult

Last year I had at least 9 Yellow-legged Gulls appearing with the Lesser Black-backs and I'll be interested to see if there are similar numbers this summer.

Summer gulls

Every year the cutting of the hay meadows for silage attracts hundreds of gulls, mainly Lesser Black-backed Gulls, to the fields between Winster and Newhaven. 
The gulls seem to be particularly attracted to the field after the grass has been cut and just removed, presumably revealing lots of insects that have been left behind, so they move around the fields quite a bit as they are cut. 
There are a lot of fields, many of which are not close to roads,  and when they are near the roads they can be busy so you need to find the fields that are reasonable accessible at the right time.
Today I counted over 350 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, predominantly of the British race graellsii but also a few of the darker backed race intermedius which breeds in northern Denmark, southern and central Norway.
Many of these birds will be heading to the Iberian peninsula or Morocco for the winter.
I also counted 9 of the paler backed Yellow-legged Gulls which have spread in to southern Britain from the French and Portuguese Atlantic coasts and the Mediterranean over the past couple of decades and are now regular on Midland lakes and reservoirs in the late summer and autumn.

Lesser Black-backed Gull - graellsii adult

Lesser Black-backed Gull - graellsii 1st summer 

Lesser Black-backed Gulles - graellsii foreground with intermedius behind

Lesser Black-backed Gull - intermedius adult

Yellow-legged Gull - 3rd summer

Yellow-legged Gull - 2nd summer

Black-tailed Godwit - Ogston Reservoir

Whilst sat at Ogston in the the rain earlier today a Black-tailed Godwit flew through, an occasional visitor to Ogston during Spring and Autumn I have once seen one on a small pond by Screetham Lane. 
In addition to the Ospreys, see photo below, I also had Hobby and an adult Yellow-legged Gull so well worth the trip.

Black-tailed Godwit

Yellow-legged Gull - adult

Yellow-legged Gull - Upper Loads

This adult Yellow-Legged Gull, with around 40 Lesser Black-backed Gulls was following a tractor ploughing a field at Upper Loads this afternoon. An increasingly regular autumn and winter visitor to both the Ogston and Carsington gull roosts this is the first I have recorded locally but is not unexpected as the number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls increase during the autumn.
Interestingly the white mirrors on the primaries are quite large on this bird which is sometimes given as a feature of birds originating from eastern Europe.
The Black Redstart is still around, this is its 61st day in the area I think. A single Merlin over Beeley Moor but otherwise rather quiet.

Yellow-legged Gull