Weekend Update

Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th May 2009

I returned to the forest Saturday morning with Andy and Mark, and saw a similar range of birds at Woorgreen as I had seen Friday, but this time there were two Pied Flycatchers near Woorgreens car par. A pair of Redstarts (male above) plus another male were at Speech House, while two Tree Pipits were at Tidenham Chase plus several Small Heath butterflies (below).

A Buzzard was over the garden in the afternoon, and a Large White (below) was on Allium.

I have received confirmation that the ringed Mediterrnean Gull I saw on South Lake, WWT, on Friday was ringed in June 2008 as a pullus in the Seine-Marne area of France, near the River Seine, approximately 22 miles SSE of Paris. The bird turned up in Ireland, in the Dublin area, in July 2008 and several sightings of it in this area were reported through to February of this year.

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