Glossy Ibis and Turtle Dove seen this morning.

Sunday 12th June 2022.

Always distant, this pair of Glossy Ibis has been a nice attraction over the past week at this site.

A pair of Glossy Ibis have been a regular feature at Posbrook Floods of late and seeing I had the morning free, I then took an early morning drive down to the small car park near the Floods. I found out today that the far northern end of the Posbrook Floods is actually called the Bridge Street Floods and not the latter and so I shall not make the same mistake again for upsetting the local birders there!

The Glossy Ibis in both the bush and on the Floods.

The Glossy Ibis on Posbrook Floods taken earlier in the week. Film footage by James.

I arrived at the small car park around 7.45am and noticed that the area was surrounded by Himalayan Balsam, sporting their lovely pink flowers, however this plant is considered an absolute pest and can quickly spread anywhere. Nevertheless, it will support a wealth of insect life which is good for the local breeding birds including many of the local Common Whitethroats I saw this morning here. The vegetation here was rather overgrown and it I could see it was going to be a tad difficult to see any birds on the Bridge Street Flood, but I did manage to get a reasonable view to check out the area.

A Common Whitethroat singing close to where I stood at Bridge Street Floods. 

At first, there was no sign of the Ibis on the Floods, but I did count at least 4 Avocets and at least a dozen Black-tailed Godwit feeding within the shallow water. A lone Common Buzzard was perched in a small tree nearby and a male Reed Bunting that was perched up on a bush was singing merrily. Overhead, there were several House Martins swooping low over the ground along with good numbers of Swallows and further south, over the trees, I could see at least 20+ Swifts picking off flying insects. The vegetation in front of the pools held good numbers of Common Whitethroats busy searching for insects and near where I stood, a Cetti’s Warbler burst into its loud song and flew across the main footpath, landing behind me into cover.

Above, a Large Skipper butterfly on the nettles as I was walking back to the car. Below, a Comma butterfly also basking in the early morning sunshine.

I was about to give up searching for the Ibis and take a walk southbound down the footpath and then I saw a large lump in one of the bushes by the Floods. Checking it out through the scope, it was one of the Glossy Ibis and another bird suddenly appeared in the same bush. They flapped their wings for a while as if to get a steady balance within the bush and then one of them flew down to the Floods to begin preening. After a while, the bird flew up back into the bush with its partner and then settled down. I quickly put out a message on the ‘Lazees Whatsapp’ group to let them know about the birds and when I went to look at them again, they had disappeared. Never mind, my 191st species of the year was added. Happy days. 

The 'Batman' Hoverfly, Myathropa florea, also sun bathing along the footpath.

Always on the lookout for anything interesting, I made my way back to the car and noticed a couple of smart butterflies resting on the nettles in the early morning sunshine. These were a Comma and a Large Skipper, which showed very nicely and rounded off a nice hour or so of birding here. On getting back to the car, I was tempted to go for the Turtle Doves near the village of Chalton as a friend of mine gave me the ‘gen’ that he saw there last Sunday. So Chalton village it was. 

One of the three Turtle Doves seen this morning near Chalton village. Photo by Andy Friend. 

I parked up by the Red Lion pub and who should be there, a gathering of 'Lazee Birders' including Andy, Martin, John and Jim and his son. Martin kindly gave me a lift in his car as we made our way to the area where the Turtle Doves were last seen and sure enough, it did not take long to locate the birds by their ‘purring’! I will not be disclosing exactly where the birds were situated as they are now becoming such a rare species in the UK, probably due to the hunting of this species on the Continent (however, even France is now banning the hunting of this gorgeous bird), but we counted at least 3 ‘purring’ male birds in this particular area where we watched from. Hopefully, there were a few females in the area too, but to see three birds was exceptional. Apparently, one of the ‘Lazee’s’ was told last year by a local that the Doves have been seen here for the past 12 years and was a local secret!

These two photos were arguably the best photos I managed to take of the Turtle Doves, but the birds were always distant. 

This Swallow perched nicely overhead as we passed by. 

A beautiful view from where we stood.

We managed to get good views of the birds, but they did remain distant apart from when we got a few ‘fly-bys’. They were always present with one individual perched in a dead tree being the most easily seen bird. Other notable birds seen included at least a dozen or so Mediterranean Gulls flying north; good numbers of Swallows around the area, including a showy individual on overhead wire, plus the odd Linnet or two, a distant Red Kite and a group of 6 Mistle Thrushes in a nearby field. A truly beautiful location that could hold some other well kept secrets here too. Well, at least we now know a good spot to see our Turtle Doves next year, fingers crossed. Another bit of good news, is that our local Swifts have two youngsters in one of the nest boxes by my house. I am hoping that the other nest boxes get used as well.       

Above, Pyramidal Orchids could be found nearby and below, there were a few Common Spotted Orchids 'spikes' on show.