Old Moor - Friday 21st March

The 3 Med Gulls on the Mere today, from left to right, Male, 2E26, Female.
Photo - Keith Pickering

I visited Old Moor tonight after work, first stop was the Mere where there are now 3 Mediterranean Gulls strutting about on island 1. The adult male, the one legged female and the new bird as predicted the other day, 2E26 the bird raised here in 2010. He is 9 days earlier than last year and paired up straight away with the female as last year, I felt sorry for the other male, still no mate.

Onto the Reedbeds where I observed some fantastic Bittern behaviour, the male was booming strongly from his usual spot when I arrived. After a minute he had a fly round and landed in reeds near to Old Bittern hide. Five minutes later he returned to his favourite spot and started booming again. Another bird flew into reeds in front of hide and 10 minutes later flew into open channel in front of hide and remained in full view for 30 minutes. She (assuming a female) then flew to reeds where male was booming from, a lot of crashing around in the reeds and saw both birds flapping about tops of reeds.
Saw another bird flying after this but it was quite dark and not sure if third bird or one of the two. Also seen were 7 Sand Martins and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flying over, 2 Green Sandpipers and a Redshank on the Reedbeds.

Footnote - we haven't actually read 2E26's ring yet but it would be probably more interesting and I would be amazed if it isn't him. If it is it will be his 5th year gracing Old Moor, a fantastic record and this year I hope he is successful in breeding and follow in his fathers pioneering footsteps. After all he is the first ever Mediterranean Gull raised in Yorkshire, quite a celebrity.